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Wyclif’s Attacks on the Monks

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 February 2016

Thomas Renna
Thomas Renna*
Affiliation:
Saginaw Valley State College, University Center, Michigan
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Extract

All monks are deceitful, greedy, lecherous, gluttonous, hypocritical, and blasphemous. They despoil the poor, injure the church, and pervert the Bible. Their monasteries should be seized and the lands distributed to the needy.

Type
Research Article
Information
Studies in Church History Subsidia , Volume 5: From Ockham to Wyclif , 1987 , pp. 267 - 280
Copyright
Copyright © Ecclesiastical History Society 1987 

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References

1 John Wyclif (2 vols., Oxford 1926) 2 pp. 89-97.

2 The Religious Orders in England (3 vols., Cambridge 1955) 2 pp. 98-106.

3 See De fundatione sectarum, Polemical Works 1 pp. 38-41, 69-80; De novis ordinibus, pp. 331-6.

4 Cf. Benedict of Aniane’s explanation of his capitulare in PL 103. 377.

5 PL 145.150-90.

6 Mabillon, Joannes, Annales Ordinis S. Benedicti (Luca 1739-40) 5 pp. 143, 230, 429, 448, 471, 494, 499.Google Scholar

7 Mabillon, Annales Ordinis, 104-8.

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9 Cf. Adalbero of Laon, PL 141. 771-86.

10 Cf. Archbishop Thurstan of York’s letter in Memorials of the Abbey of St Mary of Fountains, ed. J. Walbran, 1:42 (Durham 1863) pp. 20-1.

11 Most church councils forbade monks to assume these functions. Cf. eds C. Hefele, H. Leclercq, Histoire des conciles (Paris 1907) 5(1). 308.

12 Cf. Peter the Venerable, epp. 28, 35, 150, ed. G. Constable, The Letters of Peter the Venerable (Cambridge, Mass. 1967) 1 pp. 113 ff., 293f., 269, Peter Abelard, ep 10 PL 178. 335-40.

13 Idung of Prüfening, Cistercians and Cluniacs (Kalamazoo 1977).

14 See Bynum, C., Docere verbo et exemplo: An Aspect of Twelfth-Century Spirituality (Missoula, Mon. 1979) pp. 35–75.Google Scholar

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19 Sermo 46, Opera 2 pp. 56—61.

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27 Cf. the vita of Beatrice of Nazareth, ed. C. Henriquez, Quinque prudentes virgines (Antwerp 1630) pp. 25-55, 60-79, 128-30, 155-63.

28 See Aquinas, ST, I—II, qq. 179-82.

29 Concordia (Venice 1519) 5. 15 f 67V; liber figurarum in Grundmann, H., Neue Forschungen über Joachim von Fiore (2 vols., Marburg 1950) 2 pp. 85–121.Google Scholar

30 C. Alexander of Bremen, Expositio in Apocal., ed. A. Wachtel, MGH, Quellen (Weimar 1955) 1 pp. 469-97. God sends the mendicants (the celestial Jerusalem) to restore the visio pacis to the world.

31 The king’s motive is not to reform the monasteries, but to exact an equitable contribution for the defense of realm and church. John of Paris spoke of the monks’ excessive holdings, but he never suggested disendowment. See my art. in Tijdschrift voor Rechtsgeschiedenis 42 (1974) pp. 243-68.

32 See Pantin, W., ‘Some Medieval English Treatises on die Origins of Monasticism’, eds Ruffer, V., Taylor, A., Medieval Studies presented to Rose Graham (Oxford 1950) pp. 189–215.Google Scholar

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35 See Responsiones ad xliv conc., Opera Minora pp. 201-39. Cf. De pauperiate, Opera Min., p. 42 f.; Speculum, 90 f; Ad arg. p. 298 f; Super Matt. p. 335 f. I personally do not believe Wyclif wrote the De religione private. See the comment of Thomson, W. R., The Latin Writings of John Wyclif (Toronto 1983) p. 305.Google Scholar

36 De quattuor sectis novel., Polemical Works 1 pp. 244-7; De Blas. pp. 92, 229 f., 188-203.

37 Sermones 2 p. 354.

38 38 De eccles. pp. 417-23.

39 Open Minora pp. 377-81; Sermones 2 p. 354; Speculum ecclesie militantis pp. 2-6.

40 The active life aims at the good of the body; Sermones 2 p. 48.

41 Monks waste their time praying. The best prayer is ‘good works’; Speculum eceles. milit. pp. 41, 44, Cf. De Ver. Sac. Script. 2 p. 82 f. Some Wycliffite English sermons make the clergy ‘pretend’ to pray because they will not preach; ed. F. Matthew, The English Works of Wyclif EETS 74 (London 1880), De antichristo, p. 113; ‘Feigned Contemplative Life,’ pp. 189-96; ‘Clerks Possessionem,’ p. 134 (cf. ed. R. Vaughan, Tracts and Treatises (London 1845) pp. 24-6).

42 Pantin, ‘Two Treatises’, p. 383 f.

43 The Stairway of Perfection, trans., M. Del Mastro (New York 1979) bk. 1, cap. 2. Cf. Ed. W.Johnson, trans, Cloud of Unknowing (New York 1973) caps. 8, 21.

44 Ed. Jones, D., Minor Works of Walter Hilton (New York 1929) pp. 3–77.Google Scholar

45 Cf.Blakney, R., trans., Meister Eckhart (New York 1941) ser. 3 pp. 109–17.Google Scholar

46 Sermones 2 p. 147 f.; Sermones 1 p. 48f; Speculum eccles. milit., pp. 3f, 44; De Civ. Dom. 1 p. 94 f. and 3 pp. 22, 52. Cf. T. Arnold, Select English Works of John Wyclif (Oxford 1869) pp. 382-84.

47 See Wilks, M., ‘ Reformatio regni: Wyclif and Hus as Leaders of Religious Protest Movements’, SCH 9 (1972) pp. 109–30.Google Scholar

48 See Tatnall, E., ‘John Wyclif and Ecclesia Anglicana ’ JEH 20 (1969) pp. 19–43.Google Scholar

49 Eds Ragusa, I., Green, R., Meditations on the Life of Christ (Princeton 1961) pp. 245–90.Google Scholar

50 Conveniently listed in Bloomfield, M., Piers Plowman as a Fourteenth-Century Apocalypse (New Brunswick 1961) p. 226 n. 2.Google Scholar