THIS tract is less orderly in arrangement and fuller of repetition than is usual in Wyclif's work, but some parts of it are worthy of him, and it contains no opinions that are not to be found in his genuine writings. There is a great resemblance between this and the tract on the office of Curates, No. VII. Both have references to the Crusade in Flanders, and are therefore late works of Wyclif, if his at all; while both of them are silent as to his doctrine of the Eucharist, and are comparatively mild in their language as to the Friars, who are not treated as at all worse than the monks. This would be natural enough in Wyclif's earlier years, but is not in accordance with his usual tone after 1380. I incline to think that they were written by an intimate disciple rather than by the master.
As to evidence of date, I have little doubt that the mention of "anticrists bullis to maken cristene men to werre with each othere" (p. 73), and of pardons granted "to make discensioun & werris" (p. 82) refer to Spencer's Crusade, although it is just possible that they may point to one of the other occasions on which popes have encouraged bloodshed.
The tone as to persecution is uncertain. The passage (p. 87) "prisonen hem and slen hem algates in wille" looks as if the infliction of death for heresy was not yet allowed. There is stronger language in the Sermons and the Trialogus. Yet we are told on p. 79, that lords who support poor priests are cursed and taken to prison "if thei stonden sadde in goddis cause." This may have happened in Wyclif's time, merely as the result of excommunication, but I know no instance of it. Were the tract written much after his death, its tone would probably be fiercer.
I cannot identify the "litel harlot" who "dispiseth the pope and stroieth his lordship," p. 83.
Copied from the Corpus MS. X. and collated with the Dublin MS. AA.
A leaf is wanting in AA. from end of Chapter XLI. to the early part of Chapter XLIII. "for his entier sorwe of synne."
| CHAP. I. | Prelates are bound to preach, since they take the place of apostles whom Christ ordered to preach. Examples and warnings from Scripture. Wicked|ness of neglect. Prelates more bound to preach than the people to pay tithes. Duty of making them amend. |
