John Wyclif, and his interpretation of the sacraments

Abstract

It may "be said at the outset that this is not a study which includes a textual criticism of the original sources, or the manuscripts of Wyclif. That is a study in itself. I have not gone to the original manuscripts for source material, although I have seen a number of them with interest; but I have rather gone to the standard publications of these manuscripts, both in Latin and in English, which are generally accepted as authentic, and from them I have drawn the original quotations in support of the views of this thesis. I am well aware that later criticism has considerably reduced the number of English works ascribed to Wyclif by Matthew and Arnold (l). Should any be inclined to doubt the authenticity of a few minor works mentioned in this study, it might be well to state that I have concluded with Dr. H. B. Workman that they "are genuine enough so far as matter goes; the voice is the voice of Wyclif, though the hand is not always his".

The main thesis set forth in the following pages is that John Wyclif was a Protestant -- not of course in our modern sense of the term, but very definitely a protesting spirit against the sacramentarian precepts and practices of his day. Too often either well-intentioned or biased individuals have misrepresented the views of the Reformer, and have made him appear as someone which he really was not.(3) Admittedly, almost any sacramentarian position can find support in his works, but this shows his progressive thinking; and the true Wyclif must be judged from the writings of his maturer years. His rugged individualism did not consent to be swept along with the current of ecclesiastical error of his day. He was a free thinker, even to the point of showing a protesting spirit against every one of the sacraments as then interpreted by the Church. It is true that in his thinking he is more catholic in regard to some sacraments than to others-- yet in the case of each one of the seven sacraments of the Church he either entertains serious doubts as to its validity, necessity, etc., or else reaches the point of absolute rejection of that particular sacrament. There are no exceptions, if we judge him by the standards of the Church of his day.

Yet often has his true position been maligned and misrepresented. An obscure writer remarks concerning Wyclif, "Although he teaches the most extravagant doctrines on the sacraments, his teaching has nothing in common with Protestantism". Even the comment of Martin Luther is not true, namely that Wyclif attacked the life of the Church under the papacy, rather than her doctrines. And the rare scholarship of Miss Deanesly has fallen into error when she says, "Wycliffe's teaching about the sacraments and certain other institutions was all conditioned by his appeal to the Scriptures, primarily in their literal sense, though he did not throw overboard the old four-fold interpretation. He had no particular attack to make on baptism, confirmation, marriage, or unction; but the case was otherwise with orders, penance and the mass".

The pages which follow will reveal that "it was Wickliffe's destiny to direct and organize an attack upon the doctrines of the Roman Church"; and will also show that "He (Wyclif) controverted every doctrine he considered mistaken, and advocated every doctrine he considered true, not so much for the sake of the doctrine itself as for the sake of the doctrine's effect upon the spiritual condition of those who held it". Basically his views of the sacraments had to be doctrinal views. I have tried to state honestly and succinctly the facts as I have found them, giving a number of quotations both from the Latin and the English works of the Reformer, since the full force of the argument is seen more readily by having the choicest statements immediately before us. I trust that their number does not militate too much against the unity of the thought as it is developed.

The general plan of the thesis is as follows: (A) An understanding of the man; which is set forth in a very brief biographical section, and in a section which treats of the factors which contributed to his development; (B) An understanding of the sacraments (in general) of the Roman Catholic Church, with their historical background to Wyclif's day; (C) An understanding of the Reformer's views of the sacraments of the Church, each of the seven being discussed separately; and (D) An understanding of the Reformer's legacy to the world because of his doctrines and his deeds.

Realizing that there is grave danger of eulogizing so prominent a person as Wyclif, I have purposely endeavoured to refrain from such language in the course of this work; and if there should be portions where I seem to indulge in anything akin to eulogy, the reader will remember that I have written only that which is my firm conviction concerning the Reformer,