Wyclif, Dialogus

Dialogussive Speculum Ecclesie Militantis

John Wyclif’s dialogue between Truth and Falsehood on whether the church should own property, written in 1379. The Latin of Alfred Pollard’s edition, with a new English translation and notes.

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The case from scripture

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Falsehood appeals to authority

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Practical objections

343536

Conclusion

AB

Epilogue

Each column is a chapter, as tall as it is long. Truth speaks in russet, the colour of the undyed gowns of Wyclif’s poor priests, and Falsehood in gilt, the endowed church’s gold. Grey is Wyclif in his own voice, in the prologue and the Epilogue. Falsehood gets a few lines at a time, and in a dozen chapters none at all; Truth answers at length. After the third chapter, Pollard notes, “Veritas is Wyclif, and Wyclif only.”

Contents

The case from scripture

  1. Chapter 1 the three parts of the church militant
  2. Chapter 2 each part its rule of life
  3. Chapter 3 the first law: Numbers 18
  4. Chapter 4 the second law: Deuteronomy 18
  5. Chapter 5 the third law: Ezekiel 44
  6. Chapter 6 the law of grace: Mark 10
  7. Chapter 7 Christ's poverty and the endowed clergy
  8. Chapter 8 Falsehood's reply: poverty for a time
  9. Chapter 9 the new chief priests
  10. Chapter 10 faith and opinion: the custom of the saints

Falsehood appeals to authority

  1. Chapter 11 the majority and the two popes
  2. Chapter 12 belief, opinion and faith
  3. Chapter 13 bulls, indulgences and letters of fraternity
  4. Chapter 14 prayers to the saints, and implicit faith
  5. Chapter 15 the saints in heaven and the prelates of today
  6. Chapter 16 miracles no proof of holiness
  7. Chapter 17 the clergy's number and its perfection
  8. Chapter 18 noble prelates and the poverty of Christ
  9. Chapter 19 the friars' silence on the clergy's lordship
  10. Chapter 20 the private religions and the pure religion of Christ
  11. Chapter 21 the cloisters and the open air
  12. Chapter 22 the selling of prayers
  13. Chapter 23 the worth of prayer

Practical objections

  1. Chapter 24 the fall of the caesarean prelates
  2. Chapter 25 priests' prayers, labour and wages
  3. Chapter 26 the universities and their colleges
  4. Chapter 27 the censures of Antichrist
  5. Chapter 28 perpetual alms
  6. Chapter 29 alms without lordship, and the dead hand
  7. Chapter 30 perpetual alms, and the clergy as almoners
  8. Chapter 31 who should disendow whom: the apish likeness
  9. Chapter 32 glebe and church
  10. Chapter 33 true and false trade, buying and selling

Conclusion

  1. Chapter 34 who must help: clergy, lords and labourers
  2. Chapter 35 how the devil brought in the clergy's lordship
  3. Chapter 36 the lords' remedy: seven years of poverty

Epilogue

  1. Epilogue, part one prescription, charters and custom
  2. Epilogue, part two the third argument, and the four feigned answers