§ 41. WYCLIB^'S TEACHINGS. 329
friars be seized and given to the needy classes. Wyclif, the preacher, was always the bold champion of the layman's rights. His work, The_PastoxaL Office^ which is devoted to the duties of the faithful minister, and his sermons lay stress upon preaching as the minister's proper duty. Preaching he declared the "highest service," even as Ci'hrist nccnpieH hTrn^pl
lostih that worJs:. And if bishops, on whom the obligation to preach moi'S''especially rests, preach not, but are content to have true priests preach in their stead, they are as those that murder Jesus. The same authority which gave to priests the privilege of celebrating-^ the saprflmPinL-oLiJ^ft n-itan RiTa.<l<v*" ^hem to preacb^^Yea, the preaching of the Word is a more _ precious occupation than the ministration of the sacraments. i When the Crospel was preached, as in Apostolic limes, tlie Church grew. Above all things, close attention should be given to Christ's words, whose authority is superior to all %lq, rites and commandments of pope and friars^ Again and again Wyclif sets forth the ideal minister, as in the following description: —
" A priest should live holily, in prayer, in desires and thought, in godly conversation and honest teaching, having God's commandments and His Gospel ever on his lips. And let his deeds be so righteous that no man may be able with cause to find fault with them, and so open his acts that he may be a true book to all sinful and wicked men to serve God. For the example of a good life stirreth men more than true preaching with only the naked word."
The priest's chief work is to render a substitute for Christ's miracles by converting himself and his neighbor to God's law.^ The Sermon on the Mount, Wyclif pronounced sufficient _for the guidance of human life apart from any of the req^uireinents and traditions of meij.
IV. As A Doctrinal Reformer. — Wyclif's later writings teem with denials of the doctrinal ten§^§ of his agg and indict-
1 Evangelizatio verbi est preciosior quam ministratio alicujus ecclesiastici saeramenti, Op. evang., I. 375. Predicatio verbi Dei est solemnior quam confectio saeramenti, De sac. scr., II. 156. See also Arnold, Engl. Works, III. 153 sq., 464 ; Serm. Lat., II. 115 ; De scr. sac, II. 138.
^ Debemus loco miraculorum Christi nos et proximos ad legem Dei convertere. De ver., I. 90 ; Op. evang., I. 368.
330 THE MIDDLE ACES. A.D. 1294-1517.
ments against ecclesiastical abuses. There could be uo doubt of his meaning. Beginning with the 19 errors Gregory XI. was able to discern, the list grew as the years went on. The Council of Constance gave 45, Netter of Walden, fourscore, and the Bohemian John Liicke, an Oxford doctor of divinity, 266. Cocliheus, in writing against the Hussites, went beyond all former computations and ascribed to Wyclif the plump sum of 303 heresies, surely enough to have forever covered the Reformer's memory with obloquy. Fuller suggests as tlie reason for these variations that some lists included onl}' the Reformer's primitive tenetsor breeders, and others reckoned all the younger fry of consequence derived from them.
The first three articles adduced by the Council of Constance ^ had respect to the Lord's Siyiper, and charged Wyclif with holding that the substance of the bread remains unchanged after the consecration, that Christ is not in the sacrament of the altar in a real sense, and the accidents of a thing cannot remain after its substance is changed. The 4th article accuses him with declaring that the acts of bishop or priest in baptizing, ordaining and consecrating are void if the celebrant be in a state of mortal sin. Then follow charges of other alleged heresies, such as that after Urban VI. the papacy should be,-aboli&hwl, the clergy should hold no temporal possessions, the friars should gain their living by manual toil and not by begging, Sylvester and Constantine erred in endowing the Church, the papal elections by the cardinals were an invention of the devil, it is not necessary to salvation that one believe the Roman church to be supreme amongst the churches and that all tlie religious orders were introduced by the devil.
The most of the 45 propositions represent Wyclif's views with precision. They lie on the surface of his later writings, but they do not exhaust his dissent from the teachings and practice of his time. His assault may be summarized under five heads : the nature of the Church, the papacy, the priesthood, the doctrine of transubstantiation and the use of the Scriptures.
The Church was defined in the Civil Lordship to be the 1 See Mansi, XXVII., 032-030, and Mirbt, p. 167 sq.