John Wycliff, last of the schoolmen and first of the English reformers/Chapter 17
JOHN WYCLIF.
THE DORSET PORTRAIT.
CHAPTER XVII.
THE LAST STAGE.
SOLATED at the end of his life, except for the few friends who gathered round him or came to see him in his Leicestershire parsonage, John Wyclif devoted himself more and more to his literary labours. In addition to the revised version of the Bible, of which something has been said in a previous chapter, he continued the writing and circulation of English treatises, without entirely abandoning the use of Latin. The Trialogus, for instance, which contains references to the attempted suppression of his Poor Priests, must have been produced in one of the last three years, probably in 1383[1]; but it was in his mother tongue that he now almost invariably wrote, as though he would turn aside from the language of the men who had condemned his teaching, and seek a reversal of their judgment from those who, after all, had always commanded his best service and sympathies.
Before he left Oxford he had collected his English sermons, and had written some at least of the expositions in which he sought to simplify theology for unlearned readers. The last stage of Wyclif's life saw him virtually transformed into a writer of tracts for the times—not so much of controversial and political pamphlets as of expository tracts, clearly intended to give popular interpretations of Scripture and religious worship, for the benefit of humble folk who could understand no language but their mother tongue. He evidently believed that in thus writing he was making his appeal to the great majority of the English Church, just as in his earlier life he had been addressing reasonable men and scholars throughout the various parts of Christendom. To the latter he had spoken directly, in the tongue common to learned men of all nations. Long since he had felt a compunction on behalf of the unlearned men of his own country, who had only been reached at second hand through the language of the schools and the Latin treatises. Now, when God had given him rest and seclusion, and had "laid his constraint upon him" (as he presently told Pope Urban), he was more than ever spurred to talk to his countrymen in a tongue which they could understand, and to use great plainness of speech, before the seal was set upon his lips, and the long night closed over him.
We have seen already that a large number of English tracts were written by members of the Wycliffite and Lollard school of thought, many of which were afterwards attributed to Wyclif himself; and it has been pointed out that it would be difficult, if not absolutely impossible, to establish a canon of authenticity in regard to them. An individual mind, familiar with the unquestioned works of Wyclif, might set apart to its own satisfaction the unsigned, undated, and generally untitled tracts which belong to the master, and not to any of his disciples. But at best it would be largely a matter of conjecture, and the result could never be definitive. The internal evidence derived from the language alone is of comparatively little value. We might get so far as to say with confidence "This text is northern," or "This writer spoke the same dialect as Langland," but it would be very hazardous to say, on the strength of so many vocables and grammatical forms, "Wyclif himself wrote this, and no other man of northern origin, of Oxford training, and of occasional sojourn in London." The English of the fourteenth century was in a specially plastic and evolutionary phase; the yeast of stimulated thought was constantly changing its form; the same writer presents a varying model at different stages of his life. Chaucer's prose is not identical in point of language with his poems; the Knights Tale may be readily discriminated from his earlier essays in verse; and even in the same poem we find words which are used in two or more forms.
Wyclif doubtless varied in this way, as his contemporaries did; and thus we should be slow to say that a particular piece was either his or not his, on this score alone. But when we add to the testimony of the words that of idiom, manner, turn of expression, and habit of thought, unquestionably there is a better foundation to go upon. There are sundry English works which have been universally attributed to Wyclif, which raise no question in the mind, but rather produce a conviction of authenticity as they are read, and of which the date of writing is fixed between the years 1382 and 1384 by the mention of events then in progress.
Of these, two or three are especially characteristic of Wyclif—The Church and Her Members, the Great Sentence of Curse, and the tract on the Schism of the Roman Pontiffs. In each of them there is a reference to the internecine war of the rival vicars of Christ—"the unkouthe discencion that is betwixt thes popes"—with further reference to the campaign in Flanders and the proclamations of Pope Urban and the English bishops on behalf of their crusade against the cross. In Wyclif's eyes, we may be sure, this particular outcome of the great Schism was the worst of the long series of scandals which had been presented to Christendom by the Papacy. It is probable enough that he would refer to it in everything which he wrote during his later years.
Bishop Despenser of Norwich, whom Urban appointed to lead the crusade against the friends of Pope Clement in Flanders, had been nominated to his see by papal provision when he was a young soldier of thirty. His martial tastes led him to take part in the suppression of the Peasants' Revolt in 1381, when he attacked and dispersed John Littester's contingent at North Walsham. It was at the end of 1382 that Urban's bulls, proclaiming the crusade and granting plenary indulgence to all who took part in it, were sanctioned by the King and Parliament. Courtenay published them, and so no doubt did other bishops, including Despenser himself. The disastrous expedition lasted from May till September, 1383, and there would thus be nearly a year during which the subject was one of present interest in the minds of Englishmen, as well as a rock of offence to vast numbers of pious Churchmen.
Wyclif saw in this war of popes for temporal authority and possessions a striking instance and confirmation of all that he had said about the corruptions of the Roman pontiffs in the second millennium. The majority of the friars, also, were enthusiastic about the crusade, and this was a fact which certainly would not tend to qualify the indignation of the old Reformer whom they had so persistently and successfully attacked. The tract on the Schism is largely occupied with a reasoned condemnation of the offer of indulgences for the special purpose and advantage of Pope Urban; and possibly this very tract provided Martin Luther, more than a century later, with some of his arguments against the huckstering of pardons in his own day.
In The Church and Her Members, Wyclif devotes one or two chapters to the misdeeds of the friars, and to the special injuries which they had brought upon the Church of Christ. "They despoil the people in many ways by hypocrisies and other falsehoods, and with the spoils they build Caym's castles,[2] to the damage of the countries where they build them. They steal poor men's children, which is worse than stealing an ox; and they are particularly glad to steal heirs (I say nothing of the stealing of women) . . . They stir up nations to war, and peaceable men to lawsuits; they cause many divorces and many marriages without love, by the falsehoods which they tell, and by privileges of the court. I will not speak of the fighting that they do in one land or another, and of other bodily harms which are too many for the tongue to tell. For, however much they waste the goods of men, so much and yet more do they bring hurt upon the nations, as in this last expedition that Englishmen made into Flanders, when they despoiled our realm of men and money, more than the friars have taken for themselves. And Englishmen did not for a moment doubt their bringing this expedition to pass, by their preaching, collecting, and personal exertions. Even the friars who seem to be blameless in this matter could not escape giving their assent; for one manner of consent is when a man keeps silence, and does not speak up. And if friars are slipping out of it now, and saying that they never held with it, they are only resorting to their old craft of gabbing."
The sharp and spirited criticism which the old Rector of Lutterworth had directed for some time against the schismatics and their partisans must have shrewdly touched those to whom it particularly applied. The English friars, who had not for a moment ceased to rail and write against Wyclif, took the tracts of the impenitent heretic very much to heart, and the disgraceful failure of the Flanders crusade would doubtless exasperate their bitter animosity. They seem now to have sent fresh allegations of heresy to Rome, and Urban replied, after no long delay, by citing Wyclif to appear before his court.
If Urban knew the crippled state in which the English doctor had been living for more than a year, this summons to Rome was hardly less than barbarous. Though the Pope may not have known it, the friars did; and the malignity of their hatred towards a brave enemy who was so evidently marked for early death may be judged from the persistency with which, under such circumstances, they tried to hurry forward the last stages of his prosecution.
Wyclif was unquestionably at this time disabled for travelling, and with the best intention he could not have made the long and troublesome journey to Urban's court. He therefore sent an excuse, with a formal statement of his attitude towards the Pope—writing it, of course, in Latin; and either he or one of his friends made the following English version, slightly amplified by the translator, in order that his countrymen might know why he had not obeyed the summons:
"I joyfully admit myself bound to tell to all true men the belief that I hold, and especially to the Pope; for I suppose that if my faith be rightful, and given of God, the Pope will gladly confirm it; and if my faith be error, the Pope will wisely amend it. I suppose, moreover, that the Gospel of Christ is the heart of the body of God's law; for I believe that Jesus Christ, that gave in his own person his Gospel, is very God and very man, and by this heart passes all other laws. Above this, I suppose that the Pope is most obliged to the keeping of the Gospel among all men that live here; for the Pope is highest vicar that Christ has here in earth. For the superiority of Christ's vicar is not measured by worldly superiority, but by this, that this vicar follows Christ more closely by virtuous living; for the Gospel teaches that this is the sentence of Christ.
"And from this Gospel I take it as a matter of belief that Christ, during the time he walked here, was the poorest of men, both in spirit and in goods; for Christ says that he had nought to rest his head upon. And Paul says that he was made needy for love of us. And poorer could no man be, neither bodily nor in spirit. And thus Christ put from him all manner of worldly lordship. For the Gospel of John tells that, when they would have made Christ king, he fled and hid himself from them, for he would have no such worldly greatness.
"And above this I accept it as a matter of belief that no man should follow the Pope, or any saint now in heaven, except in so far as he follows Christ. For John and James erred when they coveted worldly greatness; and Peter and Paul sinned also when they denied and blasphemed in Christ; but men should not follow them in this, for at that time they were parting from Jesus Christ. From this I take it as a sound counsel that the Pope should abandon his worldly lordship to worldly lords, as Christ has given them, and at once persuade all his clerks to do the same. For thus did Christ, and thus he taught his disciples, until the fiend had blinded this world. And lit seems to some men that clerks who continue to abide in this error against the law of God, and cease to follow Christ in this, are open heretics, and such as support them are partners in their sin.
"And if I err in this opinion, I am willing meekly to be corrected—yea, even by death, if it be skilful [rightful], for that I hope would be a blessing to me. And if I might travel in my own person, I would with good will go to the Pope. But God has laid his constraint upon me to the contrary, and has taught me to obey God rather than man. And I suppose of our Pope that he will not be Antichrist, and oppose Christ in his working, to the contrary of Christ's will; for if he summon against reason, by himself or any of his servants, and follow up his unskilful summoning, he is an open Antichrist. And merciful intention did not save Peter from being called Satan by Christ; so blind intention and wicked advice do not excuse the Pope here; but if he require of true priests that they should travel more than is possible for them, he is not relieved from the charge of being Antichrist. For our faith teaches us that our blessed God suffers us not to be tempted beyond our ability. Why should man require such service?
"Wherefore we pray to God for our Pope Urban VI., that his former good disposition may not be quenched by his enemies. And Christ, that may not lie, says that a man's enemies are specially those of his own household."
It was his last word to Rome. For all we know, it may have been the last word of controversy or argument which he wrote in his lifetime. The date of the citation is not ascertained, but this letter to the Pope was apparently one of the latest occurrences in Wyclifs life of which we possess any record. He lived till the close of 1384, and then, as was right and fitting, in his own church at Lutterworth, on the feast of the Holy Innocents, at the elevation of the host, in the very act of reasonable and reverent worship, the light went out. He lay for a few days, watched and tended by those who had clung to him in his direst extremity, and who must have been prepared for this closing scene ever since the illness of 1382. Most of all, we may be sure, the veteran himself, who had continued his battle for the truth without the slightest intermission, had never buckled on his armour in the morning without reminding himself how feeble was the hold which he had upon life.
Wyclif's enemies could only regard his death from one point of view, as the judgment of God upon the greatest of sinners. The account of Walsingham is very much what we might expect of the pious and superstitious monk of St. Alban's. On the feast of St. Thomas of Canterbury, he says, "Organum diabolicum, hostis Ecclesiæ, confusio vulgi, hæreticorum idolum, hypocritarum speculum, schismatis incentor, odii seminator, mendacii fabricator, Johannes de Wyclif—whilst he was about to spue forth against Saint Thomas himself (as they tell us) invectives and blasphemies in the sermon which he had prepared to preach, was suddenly smitten by the judgment of God, and felt that paralysis had spread over his whole body. Thus his mouth, which had spoken high-swelling words against God and his saints, or against holy church, presented a horrid spectacle to those who gazed at him, being twisted out of shape; his tongue was stricken dumb and refused him utterance; his wagging head proclaimed that the curse of God against Cain had fallen upon him. And, as they who were present at his death inform us, he manifestly despaired in his last 
RICHARD FLEMMYNG, BISHOP OF LINCOLN.
FOUNDER OF LINCOLN COLLEGE, OXFORD.
moments, so that all may recognise without doubt his affinity to Cain. And such was the end of all his wickedness."
But the most direct and credible testimony which has reached us concerning the death of Wyclif is that presented by Dr. Thomas Gascoigne, who wrote down in 1441 the sworn evidence of an eye-witness. The paper is not long, and it is of sufficient importance to be quoted in full.
"Master John Wycliff, an English priest, was excommunicated after his death by Thomas Arundell, the lord bishop (sic) of Canterbury, and subsequently he was disinterred by a doctor of theology of Oxford, by name Master Richard Flemmyng, of the diocese of York, and now bishop of Lincoln; and his bones were burnt, and his ashes were scattered in a stream near to Lyttyrwort—by order of the pope Martin V.
"And the same Wyclif was paralysed for two years before his death, and he died in the year of our Lord 1384, on the sabbath, on St. Sylvester's day, on the eve of the Circumcision; and in the same year, that is on the day of the Holy Innocents, as he was hearing mass in his church at Lyttyrwort, at the time of the elevation of the host, he fell down, smitten by a severe (magna) paralysis, especially in the tongue, so that neither then nor afterwards could he speak, to the moment of his death. He spoke indeed on going into his church, but being struck by paralysis on the same day he could not speak, nor did he ever speak again.
"John Horn, a priest of eighty years, who was a parochial priest with Wyclyff for two years up to the day of Wyclyff's death, told me this, and confirmed it with an oath, saying: 'As I must answer before God, I know these statements to be true, and, as I witnessed, so have I given my evidence.'
"The said John Horn related this, in the year of our Lord 1441, to me Doctor Gascoigne."
It seems to be a pious act, even if it be no more than that, to accept the statement of the old Lollard priest, which Netter of Walden—who might have seen both Horn and Gascoigne—included in his Fasciculi Zizaniorum. The picture that rises before us as we read these simple words may appropriately close the record of this half-obliterated, never-to-be forgotten life. Let us leave him so, the protagonist of the English Reformation, dying almost alone and forsaken, who had been the friend of princes and the withstander of popes; passing mutely from a world in which his voice had re-asserted the highest of human philosophies, and glowing like a star in the darkness with the fire of a yet unrisen sun.
LUTTERWORTH CHURCH-INTERIOR.
PARTLY CONTEMPORANEOUS WITH WYCLIF; SHOWING AN ANCIENT FRESCO OF THE DAY OF JUDGMENT.
- ↑ The Trialogus is in the form of a conversation on the nature of God, men, and angels, on virtue and sin, on grace and liberty; on the sacraments, and on the four ends of man. Written as it was towards the close of Wyclif 's life, it embodies most of his deliberate conclusions, and has consequently been a happy hunting-ground for the orthodox in search of heresies. The gist of what Wyclif has to say on every point is practically this: that where the Church and the Bible do not agree, we must prefer the Bible; that where authority and conscience appear to be rival guides, we shall be much safer in following conscience; that where the letter and the spirit seem to be in conflict, the spirit is above the letter. If the foundations of these maxims are true, it is clear that they afford scope for any number of logical hyperboles; and no acute writer of that age could by any possibility resist the tendency to hyperbole. Amongst the charges brought against Wyclif on the strength of the Trialogus was that he made light of the sacrament of marriage; and this merely because he wrote that "I will take this woman" is a stronger pledge than "I take this woman." He only meant that the intention was of greater importance than the act which displayed the intention; but his enemies twisted the saying into something very serious.
- ↑ "Caim's Castles." This was Wyclif 's name for the houses of the friars, made up of the initials of the Carmelites, Augustinians, Jacobites (Dominicans), and Minorites.