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

clepyn myraclis, wheþer of good or yuel; ffor well we wyten þat þe fend doiþ ofte myche good. stonde we stable in oure bileue, for þat may neuere faile. But þe fend replyeþ aȝenst þis truþe, and seiþ, þe king's graunt bi his owne chartre & bullis of þe pope confermed þis dowynge, how schulde men denye þis or distroie it, But ȝif þei reuersen al þe ordynaunce of þis rewme? Here I woot þat men of lawe ben moued bi siche resouns. But professouris of goddis lawe schulde stonde by here bileue, and putte abac mannes lawe, but ȝif goddis lawe ap [page 191] proue it; & so ȝif chartris of men ben contrarie to goddis lawe, þes chartres schulde be wayschen and goddis lawe schulde stonde; and so ȝif þes poscessioneris toke fre þis in here lond and allegede here chartris, and trewe men goddis lawe, þanne schulde men se whiche were goddis children & whiche þe fendis children by maynteyn[yn]ge of þes lawis. and so þe fend can nouȝt do but ȝif he ouere do, whanne he argueþ þus, þat ȝif a rewme were purgid of errouris in goddis lawe, þanne were þis rewme distryed. wele I woot þat goddis lawe ȝeueþ seculer lordschipis to seculer lordis & forbediþ hem to clerkis. þe laboureris of cristis chirche han leffully rentis & worldly possessiouns oþere þan clerkis han, ffor þei ben hiȝere in degree and neer to crist in pouerte; & boþe þes þingis to|gidre may þei nouȝt haue.

But aȝens þis blaberen antecristis clerkis, and aleggen goddis lawe, but to false sentense, þat seculer men schulde noȝt iuge of clerkis, how euere þei don; for þei han propre iuges, as popis & bischopis & oþere iugis vndir hem; & her-to þei leggen but lewydly goddis lawe. Here schal we wite þat þere ben many iugementis, as iugement bi goddis lawe and iugement by mannes lawe, & in boþe þes lawis ben many manere iugementis; and schal we trowe þat ech man of dis|crecioun schal iuge of his neiȝbore, be he more or lesse, be he prest or clerk, lord or ellis pore man, and so to al þe speche þat is in goddis lawe aloonely fool iugement is þere-inne for|fendid;