Page:John Wycliff, last of the schoolmen and first of the English reformers.djvu/235

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1379]
Pope Gregory s Bulls.
177

flourishing of these tares had been recognised at Rome before any notice had been taken of it in England, where it was necessary that the remedy should be applied. After more expostulation he strictly enjoined the University, in virtue of their obedience to the Holy See, and under penalty of being deprived of all graces, indulgences, and privileges bestowed upon them by the said See, that for the future they should suffer no man to teach the condemned opinions within the University.

The nineteen charges which had been made against Wyclif, and which were endorsed by the Pope's bulls, attributed to him the following opinions:

1. Not even the universal consent of mankind since the time of Christ has power to ordain that Peter and his successors should hold political dominion over the world.

2. God himself could not give to any man and his heirs a civil dominion for ever.

3. Charters of human origin, concerning a perpetual inheritance for the future, are futile.

3. Everyone that is finally justified not only has a right to, but actually enjoys, all the good things of God.

5. Man can only ministerially give to his natural child, or to a child of imitation in the school of Christ, temporal or eternal dominion.

6. If God is [omnipotent], temporal lords may lawfully and meritoriously take away the property which has accrued to a delinquent Church.

7. Whether the Church be in such a state or not it is not my business to examine, but the business