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

CAP. V.

Lord! siþ hit is Gods lawe þat prestes schulde lif þus, and [Lords and great men should not shrink from the duty of reforming the Church.] þei schulde be meenes bitwix God and þo puple, what wondir is hit of werres and wikkednes of þo worlde? Ffor alle men þat schulde stonde for Gods lawe, and lyven as tyrauntis for to mayntene hit, synnen ugly in þis ageyns hor God. Ow! siþ in monnis cause men travel so bisilye, and þo cause of God schulden Cristen men luf more, what blyndenesse lettes men to helpe Gods cause? Ffor blynde devocioun schulde noþing lette, as hit is seid bifore; siþ Crist teches us treuþe; ne olde∣nesse, ne drede of movynge of rewmes, schulde lette þes lordes to stonde in cause, siþ þei dar go in werres þat ben more perilouse, and Gods helpe wil ferre, and hor mede is lesse. And so þo fende and his childer haf cowarded lordes. Bot sith men schulde counseil to pees, as Crist did, hit semes þat by his weye men schulde stable pees. And herfore spekes a clerke þus in þis matir; þat kynges and lordes myght esily do þis wiþ∣outen gret coste or travel of hor body, þat þei conferme not þese erroures þat hor elders did; and sone þo ordynaunce of Crist schulde tourne ageyne.

Ow! whate confessoures have lordes þat tellen hom not þis [The reforming party should preach three points:] perel; bot seyn hom þat devocioun and right of þo lawe schulde nede hom to conferme olde done errours! Hit is no drede, whoevere teches þis lore of þo fend, he is an opun heretike and Anticrist clerke. O sith oure bileve teches us, kynge of Eng∣londe haves ofte in his honde, and oute of þe deede honde, þo lordschippe of Anticrist, what moves hym so folily to ȝif hit ageyne? Freris and prestis schulden preche þre poyntes. Ffirst, þat þes prestes schulde not be soche lordes; nowþer [1. the sinfulness of the assump∣tion by the clergy of temporal power,] bischopes, ne religiouse, ne none oþer prestes; and owþer Gods lawe is fals, or þis is Gods wille. Aftirwarde, þei schulde teche þat whosoevere approves þis, confermes hit, or streynes hit, he synnes ageyns God; for he mayntenes erroures ageyns Gods ordynaunce. And so at þo laste schulde men sey opunly, hou lordes schulde gete by processe of tyme hor owne lordschippe oute of þo fendes hondes. And right as fendes gate hit by sotil ypocrisye, not sodeynly bot by processe of tyme, so schulde

men sowcandely wynne hit ageyne. And þen were þo puple on [2. the error of those who support them in so doing,] Gods halve discharged of noumbre and maners of prestis and freris. Ffor a fewe prestes þat helde Gods lawe wolden more profite to rewmes þen nowe done many. And þus myght lordes be lordes in quyete, and þo puple taught clene Gods lawe, and not be þus taxed for defaute of godes, þat are nowe occupyed by þese newe ordires. In þis myght men se trewe clerkes to God, and profitable to rewmes by iche part of hom. Þen schulden [3. the duty and expediency of a general but gradual re∣sumption by the laity of lands held in mortmain.] Caymes castels of þo newe ordires be voydid fro fendes, as Crist taught in dede; and þen schulde temporal godes multiplye in rewmes as þei first did, to worschippe of God.

Amen.