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II. Chaucer and Religious Reform
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 December 2020
Extract
On the 28th of December 1384, John Wyclif died of apoplexy while hearing mass in his own church at Lutterworth. He had braved papal displeasure and had survived the hatred of his enemies among local ecclesiastics. Supported by public approval, defended by noble friends—notable among them being John of Gaunt—he had passed through life serenely until his death. His body remained buried in consecrated ground for forty-four years. On May 4, 1415 the Council of Constance decreed that his bones should be disinterred, burned, and the ashes cast into Swift Creek. This sentence was delayed, however, until 1428. Up to 1413, at least, the world had heard relatively little about Wyclif's heresy. By this time papal vengeance was aroused by the alleged dissent of Wyclif's disciple in Bohemia. Perhaps Wyclif became the victim of the circumstance that required authority for action against John Huss. Until Huss' sources were condemned, his enemies had very little evidence upon which to bring him into prominence at Rome as a dangerous man.
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- Copyright © Modern Language Association of America, 1924
References
1 Paschasius Radbertus in his treatise De Cor pore et Sanguine Domini set forth the principle in 831. It was attacked by Berengerin 1049, and defended by Lanfranc. The discussion was continued until the doctrine of the full authority of the Host was adopted in 1215. (See Walker, A History of the Christian Church, 1922 pp. 183, 273.) It is possible that a minority of opposing opinion may have remained much later among churchmen.
2 Wyclif asserted, in his Confession to Pope Urban VI, 1382, that a third part of the clergy believed as he did on this matter.
3 The advance made by the so-called Lollards of 1395 may be judged by the following essentials of the famous “Twelve Conclusions”: No church endowments, no vows of celibacy, anti-transubstantiation, no exorcism nor benediction of inanimate objects, no holding of secular office by the clergy, no prayers for the dead, no pilgrimages, no images, no auricular confession, anti-war, no capital punishment, no practice of unnecessary arts such as the armourer and the goldsmith.
4 See Trevelyan, England in the Age of Wyclif, London, 1900, 3rd ed. p. 298.
5 Beginning circa 1381. See his famous “Wicket” sermon and his Trialogus, IV, 7.
6 I.e., Gregory. VI. because of his un-Christian love of money and power, also to both Urban and Clement for their militant enmity to each other.
7 See H. L. Cannon, The Poor Priests, Am. Hist. Ass'n Annual Report, 1899, I.
8 Witness use in political ballads. (See Camb. Hist. Eng. Lit., II, ii, 54, note; also Summers, Lollards in the Chiltern Hills, V) as well as the attitude of contemporary writers, (e.g. Walsingham). For further treatment of Lollardry see W. T. Waugh, “The Lollard Knight,” Scottish Hist. Review, DC, 55 ff; Gairdner, Lollardry and the Reformation in England, London, 1908.
9 Op. cit. in note 8.
10 I.e., Thomas Latimer, John Trussel, Lewis Clifford, John Pecke, Richard Stury, Reginal Hilton, William Neville, John Clanvowe, and John Montague, as mentioned in the Knighton and St. Albans chronicles
11 He accompanied him up to London in 1377 to defend him in the trial at St. Pauls. Wyolif and John of Gaunt finally split on the subject of transubstantiation. See Trevelyan, op. cit., p. 298.
12 Wyclif in his treatise on “How the Office of Curates is Ordained of God,” said that “few do it well and many do evil, therefore test we their defaults, with God's help.” Articles I and XX make the point that true minded priests are despised by their worldly minded brothers. In XIX. he scores false pardoners with their relics.
13 For an enlightening statement of John of Gaunt's religious views see Armitage-Smith, John of Gaunt, p. viii.
14 I.e. by the Schism between Rome and Avignon.
15 Johan von Wiclij und die Vorgeschicte der Reformation.
16 “Chaucer a Wycliffite,” Essays on Chaucer, Part III, No. 9, Chaucer Soc. Pubs., 2nd Series, 16.
17 “Chaucer and Wyclif,” Mod. Phil. XIV, 257 ff.
18 Cant. Tales, A. 486-90.
19 Cant. Tales, A. 481-85.
20 Cf. Langland's often cited lines (as printed by Trevelyan, op. cit., p. 124)
Parsons and parish priests complained to the Bishop
That their parishioners had been poor since the pestilence time
To have license and leave in London to dwell
And sing for simony, for silver is sweet.
21 “It has come to our ears that rectors of our diocese scorn to keep due residence in their churches, and go to dwell in distant and perhaps unhonest places, without our license, and let their churches out to farm to persons less fitted. Lay persons with their wives and children sometimes dwell in their rectories, frequently keeping taverns and other foul and dishonest places in them.”—Arch-Bishop Sudbury, as cited by Trevelyan, op. cit. p. 124.
It is clear that other members of the church than Wyclif recognized the unfaithfulness of parsons.
22 Op. cit., 72.
23 Cant. Tales, A. 521-23.
24 Shipman's Prologue, B. 1170-71.
25 Shipman's Prologue, B. 1173-83.
26 Op. cit.,
27 Cant. Tales, C. 631-38.
28 Wyclif's theology was strongly Augustinian, as Bradwardine's had been before him.
29 We might as well maintain that he was pagan because he keeps classical deities in certain of his poems.