Introduction

John Wyclif (ca. 1330–1384) was an Oxford secular master in Arts and later in Theology who in the 1370s became involved in political and theological controversies. As diplomat, preacher, and writer he supported the government against the pope's claim to levy taxes and the claim of the clergy to have absolute ownership of property. His chief academic work in this period of his life was a theological Summa. After a massive preliminary treatise De domino divino (On Divine Lordship), the Summa included Tract I De mandatis divinis (On the Divine Commandments), Tract II De statu innocencie (On the State of Innocence), Tract III De civili dominio (On Civil Lordship, from which the chapters translated below come), and other treatises on Scripture, the church, kingship, the papacy, etc. Wyclif's elaborate treatment of lordship, divine and civil, is largely inspired by the treatise On the Poverty of the Savior by Richard FitzRalph, Bishop of Armagh, a contribution to the controversies over Franciscan poverty in which Marsilius of Padua and William of Ockham had also taken part. All these writers felt a need to clarify the various senses of lordship, property, justice, and rights. As Wyclif's Summa progressed it became more and more controversial on a variety of subjects, such as the nature of the church, the authority of the pope, and the doctrine of the eucharist.