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John Wyclif and the Tradition of Biblical Authority

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 July 2009

William Mallard
William Mallard
Affiliation:
Candler School of Theology
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Extract

John Wyclif is remembered today as an innovator. Scholars have not misled us at that point. W. W. Shirley in 1858 stated his role as a pioneer without predecessors: “On most of us the dim image looks down, like the portrait of the first of a long line of kings, without personality or expression—he is the first of the reformers.” The English Bible translated under his inspiration is a monument that stands apart. It established no direct connection with any English version that either preceded or followed it. No prior medieval schoolman quite paralleled Wyclif in setting forth Holy Scripture alone as the final religious authority. Nor had any university leader so encouraged unlicensed preachers to expound the Bible to commoners.

Type
Research Article
Information
Church History , Volume 30 , Issue 1 , March 1961 , pp. 50 - 60
Copyright
Copyright © American Society of Church History 1961

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References

1. Shirley, W. W., ed., Fasciculi Zisaniorum Magistri Johannis Wyclif Curn Tritico—ascribed to Thomas Netter of Walden (London: Longman, Brown, Green, Longman, and Roberts, 1858)Google Scholar, in the Rolls Series, Vol. V, p. xlvi.Google Scholar

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7. Cf. De Benedicta Incarnacione, ed. by H. Harris (1886), c. 1, pp. 4, 18Google Scholar; De Civili Dominio, ed. by R. L. Poole and I. Loserth (1885–1904), I, 399, 402, 437, II, 153Google Scholar; Officio Regis, ed. by A. W. Pollard and C. Sayle (1887) III, 115Google Scholar. Cf. Workman, H. B., John Wyclif (Oxford: at the Clarendon Press, 1926), p. 149.Google Scholar

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11. For example, in Contra Epistolam Manichaei vocant Fundamenti, c. 5, par. 6.

12. De Veritate, I, c. 9, pp. 194–205Google Scholar. Wyclif acknowledges the helpfulness of interpretations by the Fathers, but this is very different in his thinking from accepting the interpretation of the hierarchy.

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37. Cf. the so-called English works of Wyclif, , e. g., Select English Works, ed. By Arnold, Thomas (Oxford: at the Clarendon Press, 1869–1871), I, 170–171, ser. lvi.Google Scholar

38. “et ideo ut sentencia Dei sit planior. et servus suus inutilis excusabilior, videtur quod in illo ocio quo a scolasticis ociamur et in particulari edificacioni ecclesie in fine dierum nostrorum sollicitamur, sint sermones rudes ad populum colligendi, ut si qul sane doctrine Christi consenserint plus notentur, et qui a veritate catholica deelinaverint declinentur.” Sermones, I, Praefatio.

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46. Cf. e. g., Sermones, III, 25Google Scholar, ser. iv; 230–239, ser. xxix; 273–274, ser. xxxiii. English Works, II, 226–227Google Scholar, ser. ii; 254, ser. xi.