§ 41. wyclif's teachings. 333
that comen to he vene have these keies of God. " ^ Towards the pope's pretension to political functions, Wyclif was, if possible, more unsparing. Christ paid tribute to Caesar. So should the pope. His deposition of kings is the tyranny of the devil. By disregarding Peter's injunction not to lord it over God's heritage, but to feed the flock, he and all his sect — tota secta — prove themselves hardened heretics.
Cgnstantine's donation, the Reformer pronounced the beginning of all evils in the Church. The emperor was put up to it by the devil. It was his new trick to have the Church endowed.^ Chapter after chapter of the treatise on the Church calls upon the pope, prelates and priests to return to the exercise of spiritual functions. They had become the prelates and priests of Ctesar. As the Church left Christ to follow Caesar, so now it should abandon Caesar for Christ. As for kissing the pope's toe, there is no foundation for it in Scripture or reason.
The pope's practice of getting money by tribute and taxation calls forth biting invective. It was the custom, Wyclif said, to solemnly curse in the parish churches all who clipped the king's coins and cut men's purses. From this it would seem, he continued,
that the proud and worldly priest of Rome and all his advisers were the most cursed of clippers and cut-purses, — cursed of clipperis and purse-kerveris, — for they drew out of England poor men's livelihoods and many thousands of marks of the king's money, and this they did for spiritual favors. If the realm had a huge hill of gold, it would soon all be spent by this proud and worldly priest-collector. Of all men, Christ was the most poor, both in spirit and in goods, and put from him all manner of worldly lordship. The pope should leave his authority to worldly lords, and speedily advise his clergy to do the same. I take it, as a matter of faith, that no man should follow the pope, nor even any of the saints in heaven, except as they follow Christ.^
The4i£iests and friars formed another subject of Wyclif'^s vigorous attack. Clerics whofoUQW Christ are true priestsiUid
1 Op. evang., II. 105 sq. ; Engl. Works, I. 350 sq.
2 De ver., I. 267 ; Engl. Works, III. 341 sq. ; De Eccles., 189, 365 sqq. ; Op. Evang., III. 188.
3 Engl. Works, III. 320. Letter to Urban VI., Ease, ziz., p. 341 ; Engl. Works, III. 504-506.
334 THE MIDDLE AGES. A.D. 1294-1517.
non^e_other. The efficacy of their acts of absolution of sins depends upon their own previous absolution by Christ. The priest's function is to show forgiveness, already pronounced by God, not to impart it. It was, he atBrmed, a strange and marvellous thing that prelates and curates should "curse so faste," when Christ said we should bless rather than reprove. A sentence of excommunication is worse than murder.
The rule of auricular confession Wyclif also disparaged- True contrition of heart is sufficient for the removal of sins. In ChrisTs^time confession of man to man was not required. In his own day, lie said, " slirift to God is put beliind; but privy (private) shrift, a new-found thing, is authorized as needful for the soul's health." He set forth the dangers of the confessional, such as the unchastity of priests. He also spoke of 'the evils of pilgrimages when women and men going together promiscuously were in temptation of great "lecherie." ^ Clerical celibacy, a subject the Reformer seldom touched upon, he declared, when enforced, is against Scripture, and as under the ^ old law priests were allowed to marry, so under the new. Ithe practice is never forhiddpn, buf-, rather approved. .
Straight truth-telling never had a warmer champion than Wyclif. Addressing the clergy, he devotes nearly a hundred pages of his Truth of Scripture to an elaboration of this principle. Not even the most trifling sin is permissible as a means of averting a greater evil, either for oneself or one's neighbor. Under no circumstances does a good intention justify a falsehood. The pope himself has no right to tolerate or practice misrepresentation to advance a good cause. To accomplish a good end, the priest dare not even make a false appeal to fear. All lying is of itself sin, and no dispensation can change its character. 2
The friars called forth the Reformer's keenest thrusts, and these increased in sharpness as he neared the end of his life.
1 His De riicharistia et poenitentia sive de confessione elaborates this subject. See also Engl. Works, I. 80, III. 141, 348, 461.
2 De eccles., p. 162 ; De ver. scr., II. 1-09. Omne mendacium est per se peccatum sed nulla circiimstantia potest rectijicare, ut peccatum sit no7i peccatum, De ver., II. 61.