WICLIF.*
THE writings of Wiclif have been treated with strange neglect. Judged merely by their intrinsic value, they deserve to be printed far more than many a bulky volume of medimval theology which loads the shelves of our libraries. Even if historical curiosity passed him by, something might have been hoped from national feeliqg. Englishmen and Protestants should feel some pride in a man who was first of the Reformers, the only Englishman whose influence as a religious innovator has spread beyond his own nation. Yet we have now to welcome the first of his Latin trea- tises that has been published in England. The Trialogus has always been reckoned the most important of his works, and this, not only as exhibiting in a systematic form the whole circle of his theological opinions, but also as belonging to the close of his life, when those opinions had attained their full developement. This last consideration is of great weight in dealing with a mind so persistently progressive as Wield 's.
Two editions of the work have been published in Germany, but the first is one of the scarcest of books, while the other is so disfigured by errors and omissions as to be often unintelligible and sometimes misleading. We think that no one who has attempted to use it will blame the Oxford delegates for choosing to reprint this, rather than bring out one of Wiclif's yet unpublished treatises. As to their selection of an editor, we have only to congratulate them. It is impossible to suppress a pang of regret when we remember that this is but a small part of what Dr. Shirley might have done for us had his life been spared ; but not Dr. Shirley himself could have performed the task better. Every page of the volume before us bears witness to an amount of careful and well- directed industry which no editor can give unless, like Dr. Lechler, he has a genuine love for his author.
The Trialogus consists of a series of dialogues between Alethia, " solidus philosoplms ; " Pseustis, " infidelis captiosus ; " and Phronesis, " subtilis theologus et maturus." These persons are pure abstractions, and there is not the slightest attempt at dramatic effect. The usual course is, that Alethia starts the subject with a modest question, to which Plsronesia replies at considerable length. Pseustis intervenes occasionally, but only for the purpose of being overthrown by Phronesis, who is always the mouthpiece of Wiclif. The dialogues are divided into four books. The first is devoted to proving the existence of God and setting forth His attributes ; the second deals with the created world, the nature of men and angels ; the third treats of the virtues and vices and of the redemption of mankind ; while in the last we have an exposi- tion of %Yield's views on the Sacraments. With this is joined a good deal of discussion on Church order and government. A supplement, printed here for the first time, denounces the mischiefs springing from the endowment of the clergy. No one can read the book carefully without seeing that it is the production of a powerful and trained intellect, accustomed to continuous and subtle thought. Now and then the argument seems to be lost in verbal quibbles, or wasted in vain and fruitless speculations. This impression is probably always produced by the scholastic philo- sophy on those who do not accept it, but in Wiclif's hands it is at least never incoherent or flabby. We cannot of course, in these limits attempt a summary of a book which ranges over the whole field of theology, from the proof of God's being to the details of • Joannis Melt, Trialorte, cum Supplement° rrtalogd. Ilium receueult, hoc primum edidit, utrumque commentarto critic° lustruslt Gottlutrdus Lechler. Oxonil: Typographeo Clarendoniano. 1868.
Church discipline, and we must be content to call attention to one or two of the leading characteristics of Wiclif's teaching.
First, then, we note a moral fervour which makes itself felt even through the most rigid scholastic forms. We say moral rather than religious because, with all his sincere piety, it is evident that the force of his nature was on the moral more than on the spiritual side. In his writings we come upon none of those ecstasies which may often be found in the works of Bernard or of Luther, and which make us feel that the man was for the time dead to the world ; rapt in contemplation of the invisible. Wiclif's trust in God is as firm as theirs, but his eyes are always .open upon the world before him and upon the task which he has 'to fulfil there.
It is remarkable with what true instinct he saw the real evils of +his time, and in almost all points anticipated the reformers of the -sixteenth century. To do him full justice, it must be remembered how little the way had been prepared for him. The revival of -letters had not yet stirred up the mind of Europe to passionate .questioning. No Erasmus had yet led even the cultivated few to -recognize the corruptions of the popular creed. Wiclif was a pioneer, and his ability and insight are shown by the many paths 'he opened, which afterwards became beaten tracks. Foremost -with him, as with Luther, catue the denunciation of indulgences. -" Fateor," says Phronesis, " quod indulgentile papales, si ita se 'habeant ut dicuntur, sapiunt manifestam blasphemiam." So with all the kindred brood of abuses, letters of fraternity and com- pounding for penance. It is true that this last scandal had long been denounced by the best men in the Church. Wiclif cut at the -very root of all such practices, in preaching, to the horror of the *orthodox, that absolution and excommunication availed nothing except so far as they agreed with the judgment of God. Three -centuries before Damiani had protested against multiplying ex- -communications, lest men should be sent to hell for faults not -deserving so severe a punishment ; and the doctrine, if less actively believed, was still a part of the orthodox creed of the Catholic Church ; as, indeed, it is at the present day.
Again, it is impossible to doubt that the first cause of his • dislike to the religious orders was the abuses of which they were the most active promoters. A proof of this is that he attacked the friars with far more vigour and persistency than the monks, though the latter fulfilled no clerical duties, while the friars in their original institution very much resembled his own poor priests. Perhaps this very approach to his ideal was a whet to his -anger. No persons are more provoking than those who hold the same principles as yourself, but degrade them in practice. Wiclif declared preaching to be the chief duty of the clergy, and the friars were the great preachers of their time; but he charges them (and, on the whole, truly) with preaching legends instead of the Gospel ; with aiming at the amusement instead of the profit of their hearers. They pretended to poverty, and asserted that they were unable, individually or as an order, to hold property ; but they enjoyed the use of vast wealth that was put in trust for them, and -their convents and churches were among the most splendid build- ngs in the country. Wiclif inveighed against their corruption ; be translated and spread abroad the role of St. Francis, that men -might see how far the Franciscans had departed from the spirit of their founder ; but he did not stop here. As with the evil of indul- gences, so with this, his keen moral insight led him to cut at the very root of it, by rejecting the whole theory of counsels of perfec- tion. Every counsel of Christ, he said, was a precept. Christ's *order was the best ; every man was bound to act up to it ; none -could go beyond it. The various sects (Wiclif's phrase reminds ass of Dr. Hook's theory that the regulars were the pre-Reforma- tion dissenters), in priding themselves on their differences from ether Christians, were setting up human devices above the law of Christ. It is true that Wiclif did not carry out this great and fruitful truth to its full results. He would still impose a stricter rule on the clergy than on the laity, and insisted that the former were bound to poverty. We cannot, however, refuse credit to a wan who utters a new and pregnant truth, because he is too much limited by the opinions of his own age to apply it fully.
Did space allow, we might run through all the special tenets of Wiclif, finding in each a fresh illustration of his way of looking down to the spiritual meaning of dogmas and rites, instead of rest- ing in their outward forms ; finding also many instances of his agreement with Luther, as in his doctrines of predestination and the Eucharist , and above all, in his desire to circulate the Bible, in which, he said, all truth was to be found explicitly or implicitly. But we must be content merely to indicate these points of interest. While we look for the mainspring of Whin power in his moral and religious fervour, we must not forget that there were other influences which coloured his opinions and affected his popularity.
He was not only a fervent preacher, he was a great schoolman, and an active politician.
Dr. Shirley, in his preface to the Fasciculi Zizaniorum, has insisted strongly on the scholastic bias of Wiclif. How thoroughly his philosophy was a part of him may be seen by the well-known passage in the Trialogras, where he lays down five qualifications as necessary to the right understanding of Holy Scripture. They are all purely scholastic, and the first and foremost is that the student should have a true conception as to Universals. In regarding this side of his character, we feel how thoroughly he belonged to the old time; how he could only be a precursor of the Reformation, not a founder of it. Before that great change could come, an intellectual revolution was needed; the old bonds must be loosed, and a new field of interest and of action opened. But Wiclif's scholastic bent affected his place in the world as well as his doc- trine. His eminence at Oxford, together with his stainless character, gave him a position which was of the greatest advant- age to him. Not even his bitterest enemies could deny him their respect. On the other hand, the habit, learned in the schools, of throwing every proposition into its strongest and most paradoxical form injured his reputation then and since. When called upon for his defence as to the conclusions condemned by the Pope, he com- plained that they had been gathered up in the schools by boys and
carried to R..31110, and he explained a way many of th3m in a manner which, with Lingard, we should regard as mere juggling, did we not
make allowance for the habit just noticed. Many a lecturer with a reputation for heterodoxy can tell how in the Oxford of the present day his words have been misunderstood and misrepre- sented; and there is no reason to suppose that undergraduates were more intelligent or more accurate in the fourteenth century than now. That the excuse was regarded as valid we may infer from his saying that he has pledged himself not to use certain expressions extra scholam.' The judges who bound him to this must have recognized the force of his plea. The last point on which we have to touch is his relation to the politics of his time.
In this he was, on the whole, singularly fortunate. Jealousy of the Papal Court was of old standing in England, and it had been intensified tenfold by the removal of the Popes to Avignon. The foreign priests, who drew money from English benefices and rendered no service in return, were rendered more than ever obnoxious when the wealth sent to them was supposed to be em- ployed in the service of the national enemy, the King of France. The people, disgusted with abuses and extortions, lent a ready ear to denunciations of the prelates who were engaged in worldly business.
The governing classes welcomed an ally in a teacher who, revolted at the vices of the Church, proclaimed the right and duty of the State to enforce laws upon the clergy. Wiclif claimed the aid of statesmen and even accepted political office, but he felt keenly the instability of their support. He had a presentiment of an evil time aiming ; and here, as in his later English works, recurs with melancholy persistence to the need of courage in maintaining the truth even to death. We will conclude by quoting one of the passages in which he gives utterance to his forebodings :—
" Cum autem caritas sit patiens et benigna secundum apostolum, dis- ponamus nos ad patientiam usque ad mortem, et servemus continue benignitatem caritatis, si forte Deus vult poceatoribus misereri et con- verters cos ab insania qua nunc turgent ; et semper rocolamus, quomodo prophetm in lege veteri, et quomodo Chi istus in logo gratin, et cariores ejus discipuli in caned ista specialiter stint occisi ; et numquid nos meliores sumus pra3dictis patribus ? Ant numquid totum Dei pra3mium est exhaustum ? Fides nostra docet oppositum. Et breviter non con- sidero, quomodo quis delectabilius ant jocundius poaset mori."
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