It was therefore when the powers of the spiritual and
the temporal lord crossed one another that Wycliffe s strict
principle came into play, When the church exercised
functions which justly belonged to the state, when it
became involved in transactions about money and territorial possession, then, he held, it was time for the state
to interfere and vindicate its right over its own affairs.
The mis-used revenues of the church were to be won
back and the spiritualty was to be limited to its proper
spiritual office. Such at the date in Wycliffe’s history
to which alone our attention is directed, was the main
result to which his theorising had led him.[1] But it is
evident that the principle on which he built could not
fail to bring with it other no less practical conclusions.
By means of his doctrine of dominion he not only under
mined the fabric of the hierarchy, since each individual is
answerable to God alone ; but also he was already moved
to question, with Ockham, whether the pope be an indis
pensable element in the fabric ;[2] he even speculates
whether it be not possible that one day the ship of Peter,
the church, may not consist exclusively of laymen.[3]
Another step, such a step as was suggested by the schism
of 1378, would lead Wycliffe into fixed opposition to the
papacy. At present he is still animated by a loyal reverence
towards the head of the church : he only disputes the
pope s pretensions when they exceed the sphere of his
true functions as such; he only discusses in a theoretical
- ↑ Cf. de civ. dom. ii. 12 f. 198 A, B : Domini temporales possunt legittime ac mcritorie auferre divicias a quocunque elcrico habi- tualiter abutento; or in larger terms, f. 198 c : Domini tempo- rales habent potestatem ad aufe- rondas di vicias . legittime ac meri- torie eciam a tota ecclesia posses- sionatorum in casu quo eis habi- tualiter abutatur.
- ↑ Gaput Christus cum sua lege est per se sufficiens ad regulam sponse sue; ergo uullus alius homo requiritur tamquam spoil- sus. . . . Suilicit enim inodo, sicut suffecit in primitiva ecclesia quod Christianus tit in gracia, cre- dendo in Christum, licet nulhim aliud caput ecclesie ipsnm dir- exerit : Lib. i. 43 f. 123 c.
- ↑ Navicula quidem Petri est ecclesia militans . . . : nee video quin dicta navis Petri possit pure per tempus stare in laycis. Ideo nimis sophisticant qui triplicant templum Domini, et referunt navem Petri tamquam ad per se causam originalem, id est, ad istam Romanam ecclesiam vel quamcunque particularem citra Christum: ibid., f. 127 c.
