Select English works of John Wyclif. Vol. 3. Miscellaneous works / edited from original mss. by Thomas Arnold.

XIX. LINCOLNIENSIS.

[This curious tract was overlooked by Dr. Shirley; nor is it mentioned by Bale or Leland; nor do Lewis or Dr. Vaughan appear to have seen it. The only existing copy, so far as appears, is found in the MS., Bodl. 647, between the Vita Sacerdotum (Shirley, No. 53) and Of the Eucharist (Shirley, No. 54). From this MS. of course the text is transcribed. The occasion of writing seems to have been the imprisonment of some of the poor priests, which may not improbably have taken place under the letters patent of Richard II, granted to the Archbishop after the Council of London in July, 1382. (See Lewis' Life of Wycliffe, App. No. 22.) The date of the tract therefore I should be inclined to fix somewhere about the end of 1382. Its position in the MS., between two tracts, the authenticity of one of which is beyond dispute, while the other has at least the authority of Bale, not to speak of internal evidence, in its favour, tends to make it probable that Wyclif was the author; at the same time, it cannot be denied that it con∣tains nothing which might not equally well have been written by one of his followers, as Herford, or Repyndon, or Aston.]

Lincolniensis generaliter describit sic claustralem egressum de claustro et sic fratrem; talis, inquit, est cadaver mortuum de sepulcro egressum, pannis funebribus involutum, a diabolo inter homines agitatum.

ÞERE is, he seis, a deed caryone cropun of his sepulcre, [Irritation of the friars at being reproved for their misdeeds.] wrapped wiþ clothes of deul, and dryven wiþ þo devel for to drecche men. Do we gode whil þat we have tyme, for Judas slepes not nyght ne day, bot studyes by alle his cautels hou þat he may slee Crist in his lymes. Bot his malice and his faders is knowen by his werkes; alþof Crist lete hom noye his ser∣vauntis. Bot sith bothe mede and synne stondes in wille, men may witte by his werkes whos clerke he is. Sith Crist and

Anticrist contrarien togedir, and freris pursuen moste men þat tellen hem hor sothes, þei schewen hom Anticrist clerkes, con∣trarie to Crist. For Crist was more innocent þen any freris ben, and suffred more reproves of his gode dedes, and ȝitte he suf∣fred most mekely, and cast hym not to vengeaunce. If þo freris do þo reverse, þei are Anticrist clerkes; and for drede þat hor ypocrisye schulde be knowen to þe puple,—and ypocrisie is noght but if hit be hid,—þei are wode when þei are reproved oght of hor vices; as a horce unrubbed, þat haves a sore back, wynses when he is oght touched or rubbed on his rugge. And so shulde men rubbe oute þe defautes of freris, and thriste oute þo quyter of hor olde synnes, for þus dide Crist wiþ þo Pharisees.

And one þing I telle hom, þat hor neue ordir dos hom to [They have got the poor priests imprisoned because their pure lives and sounder faith about the Eucharist put them to shame.] soule heele more harme þen gode. For al þo holynesse þat þei do to þe Chirche her moder myght þei do wiþoute suche wed∣dynge to hor sygnes; ffor so did Crist and his apostels, lyv∣ynge wiþ þo puple. And þerfore fle ypocrisye, and be scolere of treuthe; and ouþer seme þat þou art, or be þat þou semes. Owþer Gods lawe is fals, or þe reume of Englonde schal scharply be punyschid for prisonynge of pore prestis. And when þo grounde is sought oute, þo cause of hor punyschynge stondes in two poyntes; ouþer þat Anticrist schulde schame of hor lif, and hor wordes contraryen to hym, or for þei grauntid opunly þo feythe of þo gospel, as þei grucched in jugement [Namely, in the judgment passed by the Council of London in 1382 against Wyclif; which related chiefly to his opinions on the Eucharist.] , þat þo bred of þo auter is verrey Gods body, as þo gospel seis and comyne feithe holdes. And sothly a Sarasene or a hethen prelate wolden not þus punysche Cristis prests for grauntyng of þo gospel. And one þing I sey boldely, certen of þo gospel; þat alle þo freris of þis lond, or oþer blasphemes, connot dis∣prove þis faythe þat we telle.

And þof alle Cristen men schulden be on Cristis side, and [Knights and other powerful laymen ought to see that they are released.] reverse Anticrist wiþ alle his disciplis, nereþoles knyghtes schulde more scharply stonde in þis cause, ffor by titel of þis servise þei holden of Crist, and kepen þo ordire of knyght, in more perfeccioun þen þo ordire of freris or of munkes. Þerfore

þo gospel approves hit by Seynt Jon Baptist. And suche a covent of freris, or of munkes ouþer, was never in Cristendome as Mauris [St. Maur, or Maurus, according to the account given of him by Gregory the Great in his Dialogues, was the son of a nobleman, by whom he was brought, when only twelve years old, to Subiaco, and placed under the care of St. Benedict. Though the founder of a flourishing branch of the Benedictine order, he never was more than a deacon. Does the writer mean to say that St. Maur preserved, after he joined St. Benedict, his secular rank and status as a nobleman? or merely that he and his fellows as they were the first monks in the West, so had never been equalled since? There is another reference to St. Maurus in the tract De Schismate.] and his felowes; and hit is likely þat al þis private religioun makes not suche a legioun of seyntis in heven. On þis schulde knyghtes þenke, and do servise to Crist, for þere are none feller fendes þen are wickkid prestis, as schewes Cay∣phas and Scaryot, and mony soche oþer. Alle Cristen men schulden þenke on þis faythe of þe gospel, hou Crist schal cum at þe day of dome, and reprove dampned men for hor un∣kyndenesse, and when he was in prison þei visited hym not. Gedir we oure wittes, and knowe we wisely þat hit is more [to] [supplied conjecturally.] assent to unskilful prisonynge, þen for to absent us fro visitynge of prisouns. And one þing is knowun in Cristen mennis byleve, þat whoso wiþdrawes his helpe fro cause of Crist, he consentis to þo synne þat he schulde destrye. And so everiche Englische mon þat helpes not soche persouns is reproved of Crist as a fals servaunt. Somme schulden helpe by preyer, and somme by gode speche, somme by worldly pouste, and somme by gode lyve. And trowe not þat wikkednesse of freris or igno∣raunce of prestis excuses not seculer lordes to autorise hor dedes. As knyghtes and alle Cristen men schal be dampned of God bot if þei do servise þat þei owe to hym, so prestes are dampnable, þat God schewes periles by whom he wil punysche þo puple, for hydynge of hom, as þo prophete seis. And þis [Jonah i. 2.] worlde neded prophetis to speke and drede no mon.

Amen.