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WILLIAM WYCHERLEY (c. 1640-1716)
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Wycherley's university career seems also to have been influenced by the same causes
.
Although See also:Puritanism had certainly not contaminated the See also:universities, yet English " quality and politeness " (to use Major Pack's words) have always, since the great See also:rebellion, been rather ashamed of possessing too much learning
.
As a See also:fellow-commoner of See also:Queen's See also:College, Oxford, Wycherley only lived (according to See also:Wood) in the See also:provost's lodgings, being entered in the public library under the See also:title of " Philosophiae Studiosus " in See also:July 166o
.
And he does not seem to have matriculated or to have taken a degree
.
Nor when, on quitting Oxford, he took up his See also:residence in the Inner See also:Temple, where he had been entered in 1659, did he give any more See also:attention to the dry study of the See also:law than was proper to one so warmly caressed " by the persons most eminent for their quality or politeness." See also:Pleasure and the See also:stage were alone open to him, and probably early in 1671 was produced, at the See also:Theatre Royal, Love in a Wood
.
It was published the next year
.
With regard to this See also:comedy Wycherley told Pope—told him " over and over " till Pope believed him—believed him, at least, until they quarrelled about Wycherley's verses—that he wrote it the year before he went to Oxford
.
But we need not believe him: the worst See also:witness against a man is mostly himself
.
To pose as the wicked boy of See also:genius has been the foolish ambition of many writers, but on inquiry it will generally be found that these inkhorn Lotharios are not nearly so wicked as they would have us believe
.
When Wycherley charges himself with having written, as a boy of nineteen, scenes so callous and so depraved that even See also:Barbara See also:Palmer's appetite for profligacy was, if not satisfied, appeased, there is, we repeat, no need to believe him
.
Indeed, there is every See also:reason to disbelieve him, not for the reasons advanced by Macaulay, how-ever, who in challenging Wycherley's date does not go nearly deep enough
.
Macaulay points to the allusions in the See also:play to gentlemen's periwigs, to guineas, to the vests which See also:
We must remember, however, that even if the play had been written in that year, and delayed in its See also:production till 1672, it is exactly this See also:kind of allusion to See also:recent events which any dramatist with an See also:eye to freshness of See also:colour would be certain to weave into his See also:dialogue
.
It is not that " the whole See also:air and spirit of the piece belong to a period subsequent to that mentioned by Wycherley," but that " the whole air and spirit of the piece " belong to a man—an experienced and hardened See also:young man of the world—and not to a boy who would See also:fain pose as an experienced and hardened young man of the world
.
The real defence of Wycherley against his foolish See also:impeachment of himself is this, that Love in a Wood, howsoever inferior in structure and in all the See also:artistic economies to The Country Wife and The Plain Dealer, contains scenes which no inexperienced boy could have written—scenes which, not for moral hardness merely, but often for real dramatic ripeness, are almost the strongest to be found amongst his four plays
.
With regard to dramatic ripeness, indeed, if we were asked to indicate the finest See also:touch in all Wycherley, we should very likely select a speech in the third See also:scene of the third See also:act of this veryplay, where the vain, foolish and boastful See also:rake Dapperwit, having taken his friend to see his See also:mistress for the See also:express purpose of advertising his lordship over her, is coolly denied by her and insolently repulsed
.
" I think," says Dapperwit, " See also:women take inconstancy from me worse than from any man breathing."
Now, does the subsequent development of Wycherley's dramatic genius See also:lead us to believe that, at nineteen, he could have given this touch, worthy of the See also:hand that See also:drew Malvolio
?
Is there anything in his two masterpieces—The Country Wife or The Plain Dealer—that makes it credible that Wycherley, the boy, could have thus delineated by a single quiet touch vanity as a See also:chain-See also:armour which no See also:shaft can See also:pierce—vanity, that is to say, in its perfect development
?
However, Macaulay (forgetting that, among the myriad vanities of the See also:writing fraternity, this of pretending to an early development of intellectual See also:powers that ought not to be, even if they could be, See also:developed early is at once the most comic and the most See also:common) is rather too severe upon Wycherley's disingenuousness in regard to the See also:dates of his plays
.
That the writer of a play far more daring than See also:Etheredge's She Would if She Could—and far more brilliant too—should at once become the talk of Charles's court was inevitable; equally inevitable was it that the author of the See also:song at the end of the first act, in praise of harlots and their offspring, should touch to its depths the soul of the duchess of See also:Cleveland
.
Possibly Wycherley intended this famous song as a glorification of Her See also:Grace and her profession, for he seems to have been more delighted than surprised when, as he passed in his See also:coach through See also:Pall Mall, he heard the duchess address him from her coach window as a " See also:rascal," a " villain," and as a son of the very kind of See also:lady his song had lauded
.
For his See also:answer was perfect in its readiness: " Madam, you have been pleased to bestow a title on me which belongs only to the fortunate." Perceiving that Her Grace received the compliment in the spirit in which it was meant, he lost no time in calling upon her, and was from that moment the recipient of those " favours " to which he alludes with See also:pride in the See also:dedication of the play to her
.
Voltaire's See also:story (in his Letters on the English Nation) that Her Grace used to go to Wycherley's See also:chambers in the Temple disguised as a country wench, in a See also:straw See also:hat, with pattens on and a See also:basket in her hand, may be apocryphal—very likely it is—for disguise was quite superfluous in the case of the mistress of Charles II. and See also:Jacob See also: Whether Wycherley's experiences as a See also:naval officer, which he alludes to in his lines " On a See also:Sea Fight which the Author was in betwixt the English and the Dutch," occurred before or after the production of Love in a Wood is a point upon which opinions differ, but on the whole we are inclined to agree with Macaulay, against See also:Leigh See also:Hunt, that these experiences took See also:place not only after the production of Love in a Wood but after the production of The Gentleman Dancing Master, in 1673 . We also think, with Macaulay, that he went to sea simply because it was the " polite " thing to do so—simply because, as he himself in the See also:epilogue to The Gentleman Dancing Master says, " all gentlemen must pack to sea." This second comedy was published in 1673, but was probably acted See also:late in 1671 . It is inferior to Love in a Wood . In The Relapse the artistic See also:mistake of blending comedy and See also:farce See also:damages a splendid play, but leaves it a splendid play still . In The Gentleman Dancing Master this mingling of discordant elements destroys a play that would never in any circumstances 'See also:nave been strong—a play nevertheless which abounds in See also:animal ,pirits, and is luminous here and there with true dramatic points . It is, however, on his two last comedies—The Country Wife and The Plain Dealer—that must See also:rest Wycherley's fame as a master of that comedy of repartee which, inaugurated by Etheredge, and afterwards brought to perfection by Congreve and Vanbrugh, supplanted the humoristic comedy of the Elizabethans . The Country Wife, produced in 1672 or 1673 and published in 1675, is so full of wit, ingenuity, animal See also:spirits and conventional See also:humour that, had it not been for its See also:motive—a motive which in any healthy See also:state of society must always be as repulsive to the most lax as to the most moral reader—it would probably have survived as See also:long as the acted See also:drama remained a See also:literary See also:form in England . So strong, indeed, is the hand that could draw such a See also:character as Majory Pinchwife (the undoubted See also:original not only of Congreve's See also:Miss Prue but of Vanbrugh's Hoyden), such a character as Sparkish (the undoubted original of Congreve's Tattle), such a character as See also:Horner (the undoubted original of all those cool impudent rakes with whom our stage has since been familiar), that Wycherley is certainly entitled to a place alongside Congreve and Vanbrugh . And, indeed, if priority of date is to have its See also:fair and full See also:weight, it seems difficult to See also:challenge See also:Professor See also:Spalding's dictum that Wycherley is " the most vigorous of the set." In See also:order to do See also:justice to the life and brilliance of The Country Wife we have only to compare it with The Country Girl, after-wards made famous by the acting of Mrs See also:Jordan, that Bowdlerized form of The Country Wife in which See also:Garrick, with an See also:object more praiseworthy than his success, endeavoured to See also:free it of its load of unparalleled licentiousness by disturbing and sweetening the motive—even as Voltaire afterwards (with an object also more praiseworthy than his success) endeavoured to disturb and sweeten the motive of The Plain Dealer in La Prude . While the two Bowdlerized forms of Garrick and Voltaire are as dull as the .Esop of See also:Boursault, the texture of Wycherley's scandalous dialogue would seem to scintillate with the changing hues of shot See also:silk or of the See also:neck of a See also:pigeon or of a shaken See also:prism, were it not that the many-coloured See also:lights rather suggest the miasmatic radiance of a foul ditch shimmering in the See also:sun . It is easy to See also:share Macaulay's indignation at Wycherley's satyr-like defilement of art, and yet, at the same time, to protest against that disparagement of their literary riches which nullifies the value of Macaulay's See also:criticism . And scarcely inferior to The Country Wife is The Plain Dealer, produced probably early in 1674 and published three years later,— a play of which Voltaire said, " Je ne connais point de comedie chez les anciens ni chez les moderns oil it y ait autant d'esprit." This comedy had an immense See also:influence, as regards manipulation of dialogue, upon all subsequent English comedies of repartee, and he who wants to trace the ancestry of Tony Lumpkin and Mrs Hardcastle has only to turn to See also:Jerry Blackacre and his See also:mother, while Manly (for whom Wycherley's early See also:patron, the duke of Montausier, sat), though he is perhaps overdone, has dominated this kind of stage character ever since .
If but few readers know how constantly the See also:blunt sententious utterances of this character are reappearing, not on the stage alone, but in the novel and even in See also:poetry, it is because a play whose motive is monstrous and intolerable can only live in a monstrous and intolerable state of society; it is because Wycherley's genius was followed by See also:Nemesis, who always See also:dogs the footsteps of the defiler of literary art
.
When See also:Burns said
" The See also:rank is but the See also:guinea See also:stamp,
The man's the gowd for a' that ";
when See also:Sterne, in Tristram Shandy, said, "Honours, like impressions upon See also:coin, may give an ideal and See also:local value to a See also:bit of See also:base See also:metal, but See also:gold and See also:silver will pass all the world over without any other recommendation than their own weight," what did these writers do but adopt—adopt without improving —Manly's fine saying to See also:Freeman, in the first act:—" I weigh the man, not his title; 'tis not the See also:
See also:Plutarch's impeachment of See also:Aristophanes, which affirms that the master of the old comedy wrote less for honest men than for men sunk in baseness and debauchery, was no doubt unjust to the See also:Greek poet, one See also:side of whose humour, and one alone, could thus be impeached
.
But does it not touch all sides of a comedy like Wycherley's—a comedy which strikes at the very See also:root of the social compact upon which See also:civilization is built
?
As to comparing such a comedy as that of the Restoration with the comedy of the Elizabethans, See also:Jeremy See also:Collier did but a poor service to the cause he undertook to See also:advocate when he set the occasional coarseness of See also:Shakespeare alongside the wickedness of Congreve and Vanbrugh
.
And yet, ever since Macaulay's See also:essay, it has been the fashion to speak of Collier's attack as being levelled against the immorality of the " Restoration dramatists." It is nothing of the kind
.
It is (as was pointed out so long ago as 1699 by Dr See also:Drake in his little-known vigorous reply to Collier) an attack upon the English drama generally, with a See also:special reference to the case of Shakespeare
.
While dwelling upon that noxious and highly immoral play See also:Hamlet, Collier actually leaves unscathed the author of The Country Wife, but fastens on Congreve and Vanbrugh, whose plays—profligate enough in all See also:conscience—seem almost decent beside a comedy whose incredible vis motrix is " the modish distemper."
That a stage, indeed, upon which was given with See also:applause A Woman Killed with Kindness (where a wife See also:dies of a broken heart for doing what any one of Wycherley's married women would have gloried in doing) should, in seventy years, have given with applause The Country Wife shows that in historic and social See also:evolution, as in the evolution of organisms, " change " and " progress " are very far from being convertible terms
.
For the barbarism of the society depicted in these plays was, in the true sense of the word, far deeper and more brutal than any barbarism that has ever existed in these islands within the historic period
.
If civilization has any meaning at all for the soul of man, the Englishmen of See also:Chaucer's time, the Anglo-See also:Saxons of the See also:Heptarchy, See also:nay, those See also:half-naked heroes, who in the See also:dawn of English See also:history clustered along the See also:southern See also:coast to defend it from the invasion of See also:Caesar, were far more civilized than that " See also:race gangrenee "—the treacherous rakes, See also:mercenary slaves and brazen strumpets of the court of Charles II., who did their best to substitute for the human passion of love (a passion which
II
was known perhaps even to See also:palaeolithic man) the promiscuous intercourse of the beasts of the See also: An introduction ensued, then love-making, then See also:marriage—a See also:secret marriage, probably in 168o, for, fearing to lose the king's patronage and the income therefrom, Wycherley still thought it politic to pass as a See also:bachelor . He had not seen enough of life to learn that in the long run nothing is politic but " straightforwardness." Whether because his countenance wore a pensive and subdued expression, suggestive of a poet who had married a See also:dowager countess and awakened to the situation, or whether because treacherous confidants divulged his secret, does not appear, but the See also:news of his marriage oozed out—it reached the royal ears, and deeply wounded the father anxious about the education of his son . Wycherley lost the See also:appointment that was so nearly within his grasp—lost indeed the royal favour for ever . He never had an opportunity of regaining it, for the countess seems to have really loved him, and Love in a Wood had proclaimed the writer to be the kind of See also:husband whose virtue prospers best when closely guarded at the domestic See also:hearth . Wherever he went the countess followed him, and when she did allow him to meet his boon companions it was in a See also:tavern in See also:Bow See also:Street opposite to his own See also:house, and even there under certain protective conditions . In summer or in See also:winter he was obliged to sit with the window open and the blinds up, so that his wife might see that the party included no member of a See also:sex for which her husband's plays had advertised his partiality . She died, however, in the year after her marriage and See also:left him the whole of her fortune . But the title to the See also:property was disputed; the See also:costs of the litigation were heavy—so heavy that his father was unable (or else he was unwilling) to come to his aid; and the result of his marrying the rich, beautiful and titled widow was that the poet was thrown into the See also:Fleet See also:prison . There he remained for seven years, being finally released by the liberality of James II.—a liberality which, incredible as it seems, is too well authenticated to be challenged . James had been so much gratified by seeing The Plain Dealer acted that, finding a parallel between Manly's " manliness " and his own, such as no spectator had before discovered, he paid off Wycherley's See also:execution creditor and settled on him a See also:pension of £200 a year . Other debts still troubled Wycherley, however, and he never was released from his embarrassments, not even after succeeding to a life estate in the family property . In coming to Wycherley's death, we come to the worst allegation that has ever been made against him as a man and as a gentleman .
At the age of seventy-five he married a young girl, and is said to have done so in order to spite his See also:nephew, the next in See also:succession, knowing that he himself must shortly See also:die and that the See also:jointure would impoverish the estate
.
Wycherley wrote verses, and, when quite an old man, prepared them for the See also:press by the aid of See also:
329), so that his lineage was of the ancient family which is celebrated by See also:Scott in Marmion
.
The Wycliffes had a natural connexion with the college at Oxford which had been founded in the latter See also:part of the previous See also:century by their neighbours, the Balliols of See also:Barnard See also:Castle; and to Balliol College, then distinctively an " arts
college,' John Wycliffe in due time proceeded
.
It has been generally believed, and was in fact believed not many years after his death, that he was a fellow of Merton College in 1356; but this See also:identification probably rests on a confusion with a See also:con-temporary
.
That the future reformer was a fellow of Balliol is implied in the fact that some time after 1356, but before the summer of 1360, he was elected master
.
This See also:office he held but a See also:short time
.
So soon as 1361 he accepted a college living, that of Filiingham in See also:Lincolnshire, and probably left Oxford for some time
.
In the same year the name of a certain " John de Wyclif of the See also:diocese of See also:York, M.A." appears as a suppliant to the See also:Roman See also:Curia for a See also:provision to a prebend, canonry and dignity at York (Cal. of Entries in the Papal Registries, ed
.
See also:Bliss, Petitions, i
.
390)
.
This was not granted, but Wycliffe received instead the prebend of Aust in the collegiate church of See also:Westbury-on-Trym
.
In 1365 one " John de Wyclif " was appointed by See also:Simon See also:Islip, See also:archbishop of See also:Canterbury, to the wardenship of Canterbury Hall, a house which the archbishop founded for a mixed See also:body of monks and See also:secular See also:clergy, and then—as a result of the inevitable quarrels—filled exclusively with the latter
.
Two years later, however, Islip's successor, the See also:
The dispossessed See also:warden and See also:fellows appealed to See also:Rome, and in 1371 See also:judgment was given against them
.
The question of the identity of the warden of Canterbury Hall with the reformer is still a See also:matter of dispute
.
It has been understood as referred to by Wycliffe him-self (De See also:ecclesia, cap. xvi. pp
.
370 sq.), and was assumed by the contemporary monk of St Albans (Chron
.
Angl
.
"Rolls " See also:ser.p.115) and by Wycliffe's opponent See also: In not one of these is there a " ck " (though once a " kc ") (see F . D . See also:Matthew in the See also:Academy, See also:June 7, 1884) . The chroniclers, &c., offer every imaginable variety of spelling, and it is possible that one favourite form in more recent times, " Wickliffe,' derived its popularity from the old play on the name, ' nequam vita," which we find in See also:Gascoigne . The spelling adopted in the See also:present See also:article is that of the See also:village from which Wycliffe derived his name; it is also preferred by the editors of the Wycliffe See also:Bible, by See also:Milman and by See also:Stubbs . "Wyclif " has the support of Shirley, of T: See also:Arnold and of the Wyclif Society; while " Wiclif " is the popular form in See also:Germany . 'Itinerary, See also:Stow's transcript, Bodleian Library, See also:Tanner MS . 464, f . 45 (Leland's original being mutilated at this place) . See also:Hearne misprinted the name " Spreswel " and thus. set all Wycliffe's biographers on a See also:search after a vox nihili . The identification of Spreswell with the site of a vanished hamlet near Wycliffe on the Tees, about 1 m. from that of a supposed " Old Richmond," accepted by Loserth on the authority of See also:Lechler, is unsupported by any trustworthy evidence . ' See a document of 1325 printed in the appendix to the Fourth See also:Report of the See also:Historical See also:Manuscripts See also:Commission, pp .
442 sq
.
Provision for theological study was made by the benefaction of See also:Sir See also: Bliss and Twemlow, iv . 193) . Moreover, it is uniformly asserted that Wycliffe fell into See also:heresy after • his See also:admission to the degree of See also:doctor (Fast . Ziz. p . 2), and the papal document above quoted shows that he had only just become a doctor of See also:theology, that is in 1372 . This, of course, does not mean that Wycliffe's tendencies may not already have been sufficiently pronounced to See also:call attention to him in high places as a possibly useful See also:instrument for the See also:anti-papal policy of John of Gaunt and his party . Evidence of royal favour was soon not wanting . On the 7th of See also:April 1374, he was presented by the See also:crown to the rectory of See also:Lutterworth in See also:Leicestershire, which he held until his death; and on the 26th of July he was nominated one of the royal envoys to proceed to See also:Bruges to confer with the papal representatives on the long vexed question of " provisions " (q.v.) . It is probable that he was attached to this See also:mission as theologian, and that this was so is sufficient See also:proof that he was not yet considered a persona ingrata at the Curia . The rank he took is shown by the fact that his name stands second, next after that of the bishop of See also:Bangor, on the commission, and that he received pay at the princely See also:rate of twenty shillings a day . The commission itself was appointed in consequence of urgent and repeated complaints on the part of the See also:Commons; but the king was himself interested in keeping up the papal system of provisions and reservations, and the negotiations were practically fruitless . After his return to England Wycliffe lived chiefly at Lutterworth and Oxford, making frequent and prolonged visits to See also:London, where his fame as a popular preacher was rapidly established . It is from this period, indeed, that dates the development of the trenchant criticisms of the folly and corruption of the clergy, which had gained him a ready See also:hearing, into a systematic attack on the whole established order in the church . It was not at the outset the dogmatic, but the See also:political elements 1 See H . T . See also:Riley's remarks in the Second Report of the Historical Manuscripts Commission, appendix, pp . 141 sq . The appearance of a John \Vvclif on the books of Queen's led to the common mistake, repeated in M ilman's Hist. of Latin See also:Christianity (bk. xiii. ch. vi)., that Wycliffe began his university career at Queen's Coliege . The whole question is argued at length by Dr Rashdall in the See also:Diet . Nat . Biog.in the papal system that provoked his censure . The negotiations at Bruges had doubtless strengthened the sympathy which he already felt for the anti-curial tendencies in English politics from See also:Edward I.'s time onwards, and a final impulse was given by the attitude of the " Good Parliament " in 1376; in the autumn of that year he was See also:reading his See also:treatise on See also:civil lordship (De civili dominio) to his students at Oxford . Of its propositions some, according to Loserth, were taken bodily from the 14o titles of the See also:bill dealing with ecclesiastical abuses introduced in the parliament; but it may perhaps be questioned whether Wycliffe did not rather inspire the bill than the bill Wycliffe . However this may be, the reformer now for the first time publicly proclaimed the revolutionary doctrine that righteousness is the See also:sole indefeasible title to dominion and to property, that an unrighteous clergy has no such title, and that the decision as to whether or no the property of ecclesiastics should be taken away rests with the civil power—" politicorum qui intendunt praxi et statui regnorum " (De civ. dom. i . 37, p . 269) . It was unlikely that a doctrine so convenient to the secular authorities should long have remained a See also:mere subject of obscure debate in'the schools; as it was, it was advertised abroad by the in-discreet zeal of its orthodox opponents, and Wycliffe could declare that it was not his See also:fault if it had been brought down into the streets and " every See also:sparrow twittered about it." If the position at which Wycliffe had now arrived was originally inspired, as Loserth asserts, by his intimate knowledge of and sympathy with the legislation of Edward I., i.e. by political rather than theological considerations, the See also:necessity for giving. to it a philosophical and religious basis led inevitably to its development into a criticism not only of the political claims but of the doctrinal standpoint of the church . As a philosopher, indeed, Wycliffe was no more than the last of the conspicuous Oxford scholastics, and his See also:philosophy is of importance mainly in so far as it determined his doctrine of dominium, and so set the direction in which his political and religious views were to develop . In the great controversy between See also:Realism and See also:Nominalism he stood on the side of the former, though his doctrine of universals showed the influence of the criticisms of Ockharn and the nominalists . He is Platonic in his conception of See also:God as the forma rerum in whom the rationes exemplares exist eternally, being in fact his Word, who is omnia in See also:omnibus (1 See also:Cor. xv . 28) ; every creature in respect of its esse intelligibile is God, since every creature is in essence the same as the See also:idea, and all rationes ideales are essentially the same as the Word of God (De dominio divino, pp . 42, 43) . There is one ens, the ens analogum, which includes in itself and comprehends all other entia—all universals and all the individual parts of the universe (De dom. div. pp . 58 sq.) . The process by which the See also:primary ens is specificated, or by which a higher and more general class passes into sensible existence, is that it receives the addition of substantial form whereby it is rendered capable of acquiring qualities and other accidents (ibid. pp . 48 sq.) . To Wycliffe the doctrine of arbitrary divine decrees was See also:anathema . The will of God is his essential and eternal nature, by which all his acts are determined; it was thus with the creation, since God created all things in their primordial causes, as genera and See also:species, or else in their material essences, secundum rationes absconditas seminales (ibid. p . 66) . God's creation is conditioned by his own eternal nature; the world is therefore not merely one among an infinity of alternatives, an arbitrary selection, so to speak, but is the only possible world; it is, moreover, not in the nature of an eternal See also:emanation from God, but was created at a given moment of time—to think otherwise would be to admit its See also:absolute necessity, which would destroy free-will and merit . Since, however, all things came into being in this way, it follows that the creature can produce nothing See also:save what God has already created' So then all human lordship is derived from the supreme overlordship of God and is inseparable from it, since whatever God gives to his servants is part of himself, from the first See also:gift, which is the esse intelligibile, i.e. really the divine essence, down to those special gifts which flow from the communication of his See also:Holy Spirit; so that in him we live and move and have our being . But, in giving, God does not part with the lordship of the thing given; his gifts are of the nature of fiefs, and whatever lordship the creature may possess is held subject to due service to the supreme overlord . Thus, as in See also:feudalism, lordship is distinguished from See also:possession . Lordship is 2 This leads to the question of See also:predestination and free-will, in which Wycliffe takes a See also:middle position with the aid of the Aristotelian distinction between that which is necessary absolutely and that which is necessary on a given supposition . God does not will See also:sin, for he only See also:wills that which has being, and sin is the negation of being; he necessitates men to perform actions which are in them-selves neither right nor wrong; they become right or wrong through man's free agency . not properly proprietary, and property is the result of sin; See also:Christ and his apostles had none.' The service, however, by which See also:lord-See also:ship is held of God is righteousness and its See also:works; it follows that the unrighteous forfeit their right to exercise it, and may be deprived of their possessions by competent authority . The question, of course, follows as to what this authority is, and this Wycliffe sets out to answer in the Determinatio quaedam de dominio and, more elaborately, in the De civili dominio . Briefly, his argument is that the church has no concern with temporal matters at all, that for the clergy to hold property is sinful, and that it is lawful for statesmen (polilici)—who are God's stewards in temporalsto take away the goods of such of the clergy as, by reason of their unrighteousness, no longer render the service by which they hold them . That the church was actually in a See also:condition to deserve spoliation he refused, indeed—though only under pressure—to affirm; but his theories fitted in too well with the notorious aims of the duke of See also:Lancaster not to rouse the See also:bitter hostility of the endowed clergy . With the mendicant orders he continued for a while to be on good terms . Hitherto Wycliffe had made no open attack on the doctrinal system of the church, and for some time he had been allowed to spread his doctrines without hindrance . Early in 1377, however, Archbishop See also:Sudbury summoned him to appear before the bishop of London, and answer certain charges laid against him . The nature of these accusations is not stated, but their purport can hardly be doubtful . On the 19th of See also:February 1377, Wycliffe made his appearance at St See also:Paul's . He was accompanied by the duke of Lancaster, by Lord See also:Percy, See also:marshal of England, and by four doctors of the four mendicant orders . The trial, however, came to nothing; before Wycliffe could open his mouth, the court was broken up by a See also:rude brawl between his protectors and Bishop See also:Courtenay, ending in a general See also:riot of the citizens of London, who were so much enraged by the insult to their bishop in his own See also:cathedral church—coming as this did at the same time as a serious See also:attempt at an invasion by the duke in parliament of their civic liberties (Chron . Angl. p . 12o)—that they would have sacked his See also:palace of the See also:Savoy had not Courtenay himself intervened . Wycliffe had escaped for the time, but his enemies did not rely solely on their own weapons . Probably before this they had set their case before the pope; and on the 22nd of May five bulls were issued by See also:Gregory XI., who had just returned to Rome from See also:Avignon, condemning eighteen (or in other copies nineteen) " conclusions " drawn from Wycliffe's writings . All the articles but one are taken from his De civili dominio . The bulls truly stated Wycliffe's intellectual lineage; he was following in the See also:error of Marsilius of See also:Padua; and the articles laid against him are concerned entirely with questions agitated between church and state—how far ecclesiastical censures could lawfully affect a man's civil position, and whether the church had a right to receive and hold temporal endowments . The bulls were addressed to the archbishop of Canterbury and the bishop of London, the university of Oxford, and the king . The university was to take Wycliffe and send him to the prelates; the latter were then to examine the truth of the charges and to report to the pope, Wycliffe being meanwhile kept in confinement . The execution of the papal bulls was impeded by three See also:separate causes—the king's death on the 21st of June; the tardy action of the bishops, who enjoined the university to make a report, instead of simply sending Wycliffe to them; and the unwillingness of the university to admit See also:external authority, and, above all, the pope's right to order the imprisonment of any man in England . The See also:convocation of the university, indeed, as the St Albans i See R . L . See also:Poole's See also:preface to his edition of the De dominio divino, where Wycliffe's indebtedness to See also:Richard Fitz See also:Ralph, archbishop of See also:Armagh, for his views on lordship and property is shown at some length (pp. xxxiv sq.) . Fitz Ralph had been a fellow of Balliol, and was See also:vice-See also:chancellor-of the university in or about 1333 (A. a Wood, See also:Fasti Oxon p . 21, ed . Catch, 1790) . The first four books of his De pauperie Salvatoris were edited by R . L . Poole for the Wycliffe Society, and published in 1890 in an appendix to the edition of the De dominio divino . Fitz Ralph also taught that lordship was conditioned by grace, and that property had come into the world with sin . Fitz Ralph's work was, however, directed to the See also:settlement of the controversy raised by the mendicant orders as to " possession " and " use "; Wycliffe extended the See also:scope of the doctrine so as to include all civil and ecclesiastical society.chronicler2 states with lamentation, made serious objections to receiving the See also:bull at all; and in the end it merely directed Wycliffe to keep within his lodgings at See also:Black Hall for a time . If the university was disposed to favour the reformer, the See also:government was not less so . John of Gaunt was for the moment in retirement; but the mother of the young king appears to have adopted his policy in church affairs, and she naturally occupied a See also:chief position in the new See also:council . As soon as parliament met in the autumn of 1377, Wycliffe was consulted by it as to the lawfulness of prohibiting that treasure should pass out of the country in obedience to the pope's demand . Wycliffe's affirmative judgment is contained in a state See also:paper still extant; and its See also:tone is plain proof enough of his confidence that his views on the See also:main question of church and state had the support of the nation.3 Indeed he had laid before this same parliament his answer to the pope's bulls, with a defence of the soundness of his opinions . His university, moreover, confirmed his argument; his tenets, it said, were true (i.e. orthodox), though their expression was such as to admit of an incorrect See also:interpretation . But Wycliffe was still See also:bound to clear himself before the prelates who had summoned him, and early in 1378 he appeared for this purpose in the See also:chapel of See also:Lambeth Palace . His written defence, expressed in some respects in more cautious See also:language than he had previously used, was laid before the council; but its session was rudely interrupted, not only by an inroad of the London citizens with a See also:crowd of the See also:rabble, but also by a messenger from the princess of See also:Wales enjoining them not to pass judgment against Wycliffe; and thus a second time he escaped, either without See also:sentence, or at most with a See also:gentle See also:request that he would avoid discussing the matters in question . Meanwhile his " protestatio " was sent on to Rome . 
Before, however, any further step could be taken at Rome, Gregory XI. died . In the autumn of this year Wycliffe was once more called upon to prove his See also:loyalty to John of Gaunt . The duke had violated the See also:sanctuary of See also:Westminster by sending a See also:band of armed men to seize two squires who had taken See also:refuge there . One of them was taken by a stratagem, the other murdered, together with the servant of the church who attempted to resist his See also:arrest . After a while the bishop of London excommunicated all concerned in the See also:crime (except only the king, his mother and his See also:uncle), and preached against the culprits at Paul's See also:Cross . At the parliament held at See also:Gloucester in See also:October, in the presence of the legates of Pope Urban VI., Wycliffe read an See also:apology for the duke's action at Westminster, See also:pleading that the men were killed in resisting legal arrest . The paper, which forms part of the De ecclesia, See also:lays down the permissible limits of the right of See also:asylum, and maintains the right of the civil power to invade the sanctuary in order to bring escaped prisoners to justice . The See also:schism in the papacy, owing to the See also:election of See also:Clement VII. in opposition to Urban VI., accentuated Wycliffe's hostility to the Holy See and its claims . His attitude was not, indeed, as yet fully developed . He did not object to a visible See also:head of the church so long as this head possessed the essential qualification of righteousness, as a member of the elect . It was only later, with the development of the scandals of the schism, that Wycliffe definitely branded the pope, qua pope, as See also:Antichrist; 4 the sin of See also:Silvester I. in accepting the donation of See also:Constantine had made all his successors apostates (Sermones, ii . 37) . The year 1378, indeed, saw the beginning of an agressive propaganda which was bound sooner or later to issue in a position wholly revolutionary . Wycliffe's criticism of the established order and of the accepted doctrines had hitherto been mainly 2 When he says that the bull was only received at Oxford shortly before See also:Christmas, he is apparently confounding it with the prelates' See also:mandate, which is dated See also:December 18 (See also:Lewis, appendix xvii.).—Chron . Angl. p . 173 . 3 In one See also:text of this document a note is appended, to the effect that the council enjoined silence on the writer as touching the matter therein contained (Fasciculi Zizaniorum, p . 271) . This, if true, was apparently a measure of precaution . 4 So he describes the popes in the first See also:sermon in vol. ii. of the Sermones . This may very probably refer to the two See also:rival popes (cf . Buddensieg, Polemical Works, intr. p. xxi) . See also:Book iii. of his See also:Opus evangelicum is also significantly entitled De Antichristo . confined to the schools; he now determined to carry it down into the streets . For this purpose he See also:chose two means, both based on the thesis which he had long maintained as to the supreme authority of Holy Scripture, as the great See also:charter of the See also:Christian religion . The first means was his institution of the "poor" or "See also:simple" priests to preach his doctrines throughout the country; the second was the See also:translation of the See also:Vulgate into English, which he accomplished with the aid of his See also:friends See also:Nicholas See also:Hereford and John Purvey (see BIBLE, ENGLISH) . This version of the Bible, and still more his numerous sermons and tracts, established Wycliffe's now undisputed position as the founder of English See also:prose writing . The choice of secular priests to be his itinerant preachers was significant of another change of attitude on Wycliffe's part . Hitherto he had been on good terms with the friars, whose ideal of poverty appealed to him; as already mentioned, four doctors of the mendicant orders had appeared with him at his trial in 1377 . But he had come to recognize that all organized See also:societies within the church, " sects " as he called them, were liable to the same corruption, while he objected fundamentally to the principle which had established a special See also:standard of morality for the " religious." On the other hand . Wycliffe's itinerant preachers were not necessarily intended to work as rivals to the beneficed clergy . The idea that underlay their mission was rather analogous to that which animated See also:Wesley four centuries later . Wycliffe aimed at supplementing the services of the church by See also:regular religious instruction in the See also:vernacular; and his organization included a good number of men who held or had held respectable positions in their colleges at Oxford . The influence of their teaching was soon felt throughout the country . The common See also:people were rejoiced by the plain and homely doctrine which dwelt chiefly on the simple " law " of the See also:gospel, while they no doubt relished the denunciation of existing evils in the church which formed, as it were, the burthen of such discourses . The feeling of disaffection against the rich and careless clergy, monks and friars was widespread but undefined . Wycliffe turned it into a definite channel . Meanwhile, in addition to his popular propaganda and his interventions in politics, Wycliffe was appealing to the world of learning in a series of Latin See also:treatises, which followed each other in rapid succession, and collectively form his summa theologiae 1 During the years 1378 and 1379 he produced his works on the truth of Holy Scripture, on the church, on the office of king, on the papal power . Of all these, except the third, the general character has already been indicated . The De officio regis is practically a See also:declaration of See also:war against the papal See also:monarchy, an anticipation of the theocratic conception of See also:national kingship as established later by the See also:Reformation . The king is God's See also:vicar, to be regarded with a spiritual fear second only to that due to God, and resistance to him for See also:personal wrong suffered is wicked . His See also:jurisdiction extends over all causes . The bishops—who are to the king as Christ's Humanity is to his Divinity—derive their jurisdiction from him, and whatever they do is done by his authority ? Thus in his palpable dignity, towards the world, the king is See also:superior to the See also:priest; it is only in his impalpable dignity, towards God, that the priest is superior to the king . Wycliffe thus passed from an assailant of the papal to an assailant of the sacerdotal power; and in this way he was ultimately led to examine and to reject the distinctive See also:symbol of that power, the doctrine of See also:transubstantiation.' i J . Loserth, in his paper " Die See also:Genesis von Wiclifs Summa Theologiae " (Sitzungsber. der k . Akad. der Wissensch., See also:Vienna, 1908, vol . 156) gives proofs that the Summa was not produced on a previously thought out See also:plan, but that even the larger works forming part of it " were the outcome of those conflicts which were fought out inside and outside the Good Parliament," i.e. they were primarily intended as weapons in the ecclesiastico-political controversies of the time . : Episcopi, sui qffieiales et curati sui, tenentur in qualicunque tali causa spiritualiter cognoscere auctoritate regis; ergo rex per Glos . Sunt enim tales legii homines regis . See De officio regis (ed . A . W . See also:Pollard and Charles Sayle, from Vienna See also:MSS . 4514, 3933, Wyclif See also:Soc . 1887), cap. vi. p . 119 . 3 Sporadic attacks had been made on this before, though it had not been formally challenged in the schools . See the interesting case of the heretic priest Ralph of Tremur in the See also:Register of John de Grandison, Bishop of See also:Exeter, edited by F . C . Hingeston-See also:Randolph (London and Exeter, 1894), pp . 1147 and 1179 . Wycliffe himself had for some time, both in speech and writing, indicated the main characteristics of his teaching on the See also:Eucharist . It was not, however, till 1379 or 13804 that began a formal public attack on what he calls the " new " doctrine in a set of theses propounded at Oxford . These were followed by sermons, tracts, and, in 1381, by his great treatise De eucharistia . Finally, at the See also:close of his life, he summed up his doctrine in this as in other matters in the Trialogus . The language in which he denounced transubstantiation anticipated that of the See also:Protestant reformers: it is a " blasphemous folly," a " deceit," which " despoils the people and leads them to commit See also:idolatry "; philosophically it is nonsense, since it presupposes the possibility of an accident existing without its substance; it over. throws the very nature of a See also:sacrament . Yet the consecrated See also:bread and wine are the body and See also:blood of Christ, for Christ himself says so (Fasc . Zizan. p . 115) ; we do not, however, corporeally touch and break the Lord's body, which is present only sacramentaliter, spiritualiter et virtualiter—as the soul is present in the body . The real presence is not denied ; what Wycliffe " dares not affirm " is that the bread is after See also:consecration " essentially, substantially, corporeally and identically " the body of Christ (ib.) . His doctrine, which was by no means always consistent or clear, would thus seem to approximate closely to the Lutheran doctrine of consubstantiation, as distinguished from the Zwinglian teaching accepted in the See also:xxviii . Article of Religion of the Church of England, that " the means whereby the body of Christ is received and eaten in the Supper is Faith." 6 A public attack by a theologian of Wycliffe's influence on the doctrine on which the whole system of the See also:medieval church was based could not be passed over as of mere academic See also:interest . The theologians of the university were at once aroused . The chancellor, William See also:Barton, sat with twelve doctors (six of whom were friars), and solemnly condemned the theses . Wycliffe appealed, in accordance with his principles, not to the pope, but to the king . But the See also:lay magnates, who were perfectly ready to help the church to attain to the ideal of apostolic poverty, shrank from the responsibility of lending their support to obscure propositions of the schools, which, for no See also:practical end, involved undoubted heresy and therefore the pains of See also:hell . John of Gaunt, accordingly, hastily sent down a messenger enjoining the reformer to keep silence on the subject . The rift thus created between Wycliffe and his patrons in high places was, moreover, almost immediately widened by the outbreak of the great Peasants' Revolt of 1381, the result of which was to draw the conservative elements in church and state together, in defence of their common interests . With the Peasants' Revolt it has been supposed that Wycliffe had something to do . The only See also:positive fact implicating him is the See also:confession of one of its leaders, Jphn See also:Ball, that he learned his subversive doctrines from Wycliffe . But the confession of a condemned man can seldom be accepted without reserve; and we have not only the precise and repeated testimony of Knyghton that he was a " precursor " of Wycliffe, but also documentary evidence that he was excommunicated as early as 1366, long before Wycliffe exposed himself to ecclesiastical censure . Wycliffe in truth was always careful to state his communistic views in a theoretical way; they are confined to his Latin scholastic writings, and thus could not reach the people from him directly . At the same time it is very possible that his less scrupulous followers translated them in their popular discourses, and thus fed the See also:flame that burst forth in the rebellion . Perhaps it was a consciousness of a share of responsibility for it that led them to See also:cast the blame on the friars . In any case Wycliffe's See also:advocates must regret that in all his known works there is only one trace of any reprobation of the excesses that accompanied the outbreak . 4 1381 (corrected by the editor from 1380) is the date given in Shirley's edition of the Fasciculi Zizaniorum . F . D . Matthew, in the Eng . Hist . Rev. for April 1890 (v . 328), proves that the date must have been 1379 or 1380 . Trialogus, See also:lib. iv., cap . 22 ; De Euch. p . 2440 . 4 The difference is summed up by See also:Melanchthon, in his rejection of See also:Bucer's eirenicon, thus :—Fucum faciunt hominibus per hoc quod dicunt See also:vere adesse corpus, et tamen postea addunt contemplation fidei, i.e. imaginatione . Sic iterum negant praesentiam realem . Nos docemus, quod corpus Christi vere et realiter adest cum See also:pane vel in pane (Corpus Reformatorum, ii . 222 sq.) . In the See also:spring following the Revolt his old enemy, William Courtenay, who had succeeded the murdered archbishop Sudbury as archbishop of Canterbury, resolved to take See also:measures for stamping out Wycliffe's crowning heresy . He called a court of bishops, theologians and canonists at the Blackfriars' See also:convent in London, which assembled on the 17th to 21st of May and sat with intervals until July . This proceeding was met by a hardly expected manifestation of university feeling on Wycliffe's side . The chancellor, See also:Robert Rygge, though he had joined in the condemnation of the theses, stood by him, as did also both the proctors . On See also:Ascension Day (the 15th of May) his most prominent See also:disciple, Nicholas Hereford, was allowed to preach a violent sermon against the regulars in the See also:churchyard of St Frideswyde . The archbishop protested through his See also:commissary, the Carmelite Dr See also:Peter See also:Stokes, who was charged with the execution of the archbishop's mandate (on the 28th of May) for the publication in the university of the decision of the Blackfriars' council, by which 24 articles extracted from Wycliffe's works were condemned, ten as heretical and fourteen as erroneous . The reply of the chancellor was to deny the archbishop's jurisdiction within the university, and to allow Philip See also:Repington, another of Wycliffe's disciples, to preach on Corpus Christi day before the university . Chancellor and preacher were guarded by armed men, and Stokes wrote that his life was not safe at Oxford . The chancellor and proctors were now summoned to Lambeth, and directed to appear before the Blackfriars' court on the 12th of June . The result was that the university See also:officers were soon brought to submission . Though they were, with the See also:majority of See also:regent masters at Oxford, on the side of Wycliffe, the main question at issue was for them one of philosophy rather than faith, and they were quite prepared to make formal submission to the authority of the Church . For the rest, a few of the reformer's more prominent adherents were arrested, and imprisoned until they recanted . Wycliffe himself remained at large and unmolested . It is said indeed by Knyghton that at a council held by Courtenay at Oxford in the following See also:November Wycliffe was brought forward and made a recantation; but our authority fortunately gives the text of the recantation, which proves to be nothing more nor less than a plain English statement of the condemned doctrine . It is therefore lawful to doubt whether Wycliffe appeared before the council at all, and even whether he was ever summoned before it . Probably after the overthrow of his party at Oxford by the action of the Blackfriars' council Wycliffe found it advisable to withdraw permanently to Lutterworth . That his strength among the laity was undiminished is shown by the fact that an See also:ordinance passed by the House of Lords alone, in May 1382, against the itinerant preachers was annulled on the See also:petition of the Commons in the following autumn . In London, See also:Leicester and elsewhere there is abundant evidence of his popularity . The reformer, however, was growing old . There was work, -he probably felt, for him to do, more lasting than personal controversy .
So in his retirement he occupied him-self, with restless activity, in writing numerous tracts, Latin and English
.
To this period, too, belong two of his most important works:--the Trialogus and the unfinished Opus evengelicum
.
The Trialogus is as it were his summa summarum theologise, a summing up of his arguments and conclusions on philosophy and doctrine, cast in the form of a discussion between three persons, Alithia, representing " solid theology," Phronesis, representing " subtle and mature theology," and Pseustis, representing " captious infidelity " whose See also:function is to bring out the truth by arguing and demonstrating against it
.
The Trialogus was the best known and most influential of all Wycliffe's works, and was the first to he printed (1525), a fact which gave it a still greater See also:vogue
.
It is also significant that all the only four known See also:complete MSS. of the work, pre-erved in the Imperial Library at Vienna, are of Hussite origin
.
The note of both the Trialogus and of the Opus evangelicum, Wycliffe's last work, is their insistence on the " sufficiency of Holy Scripture."
In 1382, or early in 1383, Wycliffe was seized with a paralytic stroke, in spite of which he continued his labours
.
In 1384 it is stated that he was cited by Pope Urban VI. to appear before himat Rome; but to Rome he never went
.
On the 28th of December of this year, while he was hearing See also:mass in his own church, he received a final stroke, from the effects of which he died on the New Year's See also:eve
.
He was buried at Lutterworth; but by a See also:decree of the council of See also:Constance, May 4, 1415, his remains were ordered to be dug up and burned, an order which was carried out, at the command of Pope See also: And yet, powerful as was his influence in England, his doctrines in his own country were doomed to perish, or at best to become for a century and a half the creed of obscure and persecuted sectaries (see See also:LOLLARDS) . It was otherwise in Bohemia, whither his works had been carried by the scholars who came to England in the See also:train of Richard II.'s queen, See also:Anne of Bohemia . Here his writings were eagerly read and multiplied, and here his disciple, John See also:Huss (q.v.), with less originality but greater simplicity of character and greater moral force, raised Wycliffe's doctrine to the dignity of a national religion . Extracts from the De ecclesia and the De potentate Papae of the English reformer made up the greater part of the De ecclesia of Huss, a work for centuries ascribed solely to the Bohemian divine, and for which he was condemned and burnt . It was Wycliffe's De sucientia legis Christi that Huss carried with him to convert the council of Constance; of the fiery discourses now included in the published edition of Wycliffe's Sermones many were like-wise long attributed to Huss . Finally, it was from the De eucharistia that the Taborites derived their doctrine of the Lord's Supper, with the exception of the granting of the See also:chalice to the laity . To Huss, again, See also:Luther and other See also:continental reformers owed much, and thus the spirit of the English reformer had its influence on the reformed churches of See also:Europe . Of modern See also:biographies that by G . V . Lechler (Johann von Wiclif and die Vorgeschichte der Reformaticn, 2 vols., See also:Leipzig, 1873; partial Eng. trans., by P . Lorimer, 1878, 1881 and 1884) is by far the most comprehensive; it includes a detailed exposition of the reformer's system, based to a considerable extent on works which were then unpublished . Shirley's masterly introduction to the Fasciculi Zizaniorumn, and F . D . Matthew's to his edition of English Wo-ks of Wyclif hitherto unprinted (188o), as well as See also:Creighton's History of the Papacy, vol. i., 1882, and Sir H . C . See also:Maxwell Lyte's account in his History of the University of Oxford (1886), add to or correct our stock of See also:biographical materials, and contain much valuable criticism . Wycliffe's political doctrine is discussed by Mr R . L . Poole (Illustrations of the History of Medieval Thought, 1884) ; and his relation to Huss is elaborately demonstrated by Dr J . Loserth (Hus and Wiclif, See also:Prague, 1884; also Eng. trans.) . See also G . M . Trevelyan, England in the Age of Wycliffe (London, 1899)_ See also:Oman, History of England 1377-1485 (London, 1906), pp . 511 tt. for authorities; W . W . Capes, "History of the English Church in the 14th and 15th Centuries," in Hist. of the Eng . Church, ed . See also:Stephen and Hunt (London, 1900) . Many references to more recent monographs on particular points will he found in J . Loserth's article " Wiciil," in See also:Herzog-Hauck, Realencyklopadie (3rd ed., 1908), xxi. pp . 225-227 . Wycliffe's works are enumerated in a See also:Catalogue by Shirley (Oxford, 1865) . Of his Latin works only two had been published previously to 188o, the De officio pastorali, ed . G . V . Lechler (Leipzig, 1863) and the Trialogus, ed . Lechler (Oxford, 1869) . The pious See also:hope expressed by the learned editor of the Trialogus in his preface, that English scholars might be moved to publish all Wycliffe's Latin works, began to be realized in 1882 with the See also:foundation at Oxford of the Wyclif Society, under the auspices of which the following have been published:—Polemical Tracts, ed . R . Buddensieg, (2 vols., 1883) ; De civili dominio, vol. i. ed . R . L . Poole, vols. ii.-iv., ed . J . Loserth (1885-1905); De composicione hominis, ed . R . See also:Beer (1884); De Ecclesia, ed . Loserth (1886); Dialogus sive See also:speculum ecclesiae militantis, ed . A . W . Pollard (1886); Sermones, ed . Loserth, vas. i.-iv . (1887-1890); De officio regis, ed . A . W . Pollard and C . Sayle (1887); De apostasia, ed . M . Dziewicki (1889); De dominio divino, ed . R . L . Poole (1890) ; Quaestiones . De ente praedicamentali, ed . R . Beer (1891) ; De eucharistia tractatus major, ed . Loserth (1893) ; De blasphemia, ed . Dziewicki (1894); Logica (3 vols., ed . Dziewicki, 1895-1899) ; Opus evangelicunz, ed . Loserth (4 vols., 1898), parts iii. and iv. also See also:bear the title De Antichristo; De Simonia, ed . See also:Herzberg-See also:Frankel and Dziewicki (1898); De veritatae sacrae scripturae, ed . R . Buddensieg (3 vols., 1905); Miscellanea philosophica, ed . Dziewicki (2 vols., 1905) (vol. i. has an introduction on Wycliffe's philosophy); De potentate papae, ed . Loserth (1907) . For Wycliffe's English works see Select English Works, ed . T . Arnold (3 vols., 1869-1871), and English Works hitherto unprinted, ed . F . D . Matthew (188o), chiefly sermons and short tracts, of many of which the authenticity is uncertain . The Wicket (See also:Nuremberg, 1546; reprinted at Oxford, 1828) is not included in either of these collections . (R . L . P.; W . A . |
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