Corpus of Middle English Prose and Verse

The English works of Wyclif hitherto unprinted.Edited by F. D. Matthew.

CHAP. II. Prelates will not allow priests to preach without their licence. They permit the new religious to go about preaching lies and fables, but it is on condition that they do not preach against the sins of prelates, and that they pay largely from the money which they extort. CHAP. III. Prelates are heretics, for by their life they set an example of living against Christ's law. Their pomp, litigiousness, luxury and covetousness. CHAP. IV. Prelates rob the king's lieges by taking money for licences to sin. They bribe nobles and jurors to support them, but curse all who try to correct them. CHAP. V. Prelates come to their benefices by simony. Nature of simony. Its prevalence. Common forms of it. Worst in the Court of Rome, and most harmful. Condemnation of simony in Scripture. It is a heresy. Bishops, friars, and curates alike guilty of it. CHAP. VI. Prelates think more of the consecration of churches and ornaments than of consecrating the sacrament of the altar, which they leave to every priest, while they keep the others for themselves. They use these offices as a means of extortion. CHAP. VII. Prelates teach man's law, but hinder preaching of the gospel. Prayer to God to give courage to his servants, and understanding to lords. CHAP. VIII. Prelates care more for money than for men's souls. Witness the sin|rents. CHAP. IX. Prelates live in lechery and lead others into sin. They raise money from poor men, who want it to live on. They publish bulls to encourage wars. They allow friars to go about begging. Thus they kill men's souls. CHAP. X. Prelates lay more stress on their own curse than on God's. They enforce their excommunication by imprisonment. For real sins they sell absolution, but they put true preachers under curse, and condemn them by false witness. CHAP. XI. Prelates deceive men by their false prayers and singing. Prayer without good life useless. God only knows the worth of each man's prayer. Prayers of wicked men are not made useful by the virtue of the Church. If they cannot pray effectively for themselves, neither can they for others. CHAP. XII. Prelates frighten men by their excommunications; forbid true preachers, and persecute those who would support them. CHAP. XIII. Prelates deceive men by indulgences, which have no authority from Christ, and are useless except as a means of extortion. Pardon is wholly in God's hands. CHAP. XIV. Prelates make the way to heaven harder by their new laws. They add also new points to the Creed; as the headship of the pope. CHAP. XV. Prelates exalt themselves above Christ; for he told men to judge him by his deeds, and they say their subjects should not judge them. CHAP. XVI. Prelates stop men from doing God's will, as in saying mass and preaching. They pretend it is to stop heresy, but they are not true judges of heresy, for they neither know nor keep God's law. CHAP. XVII. Prelates refuse obedience and taxes to secular lords. Christ paid tribute to the Emperor. Much more should they who are rich help the land. They set example of rebellion. CHAP. XVIIII. Prelates worse than Jews, for they persecute Christ in his members and take blood-money.
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Title
The English works of Wyclif hitherto unprinted.Edited by F. D. Matthew.
Author
Wycliffe, John, d. 1384.
Canvas
Page 53
Publication
London,: Pub. for the Early English text society, by Trübner & co.,
1880.

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"The English works of Wyclif hitherto unprinted.Edited by F. D. Matthew." In the digital collection Corpus of Middle English Prose and Verse. https://name.umdl.umich.edu/aeh6713.0001.001. University of Michigan Library Digital Collections. Accessed May 7, 2025.
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