Wyclif’s Latin works

De ecclesia, chapter 1, part 1

The prologue: knowing our mother, and what the church is

Loserth pp. 1.2–3.13

About this chapter

Occasion. Written between early 1378 and early 1379 (SEP), in the months after Gregory XI’s five bulls of 1377 condemned nineteen articles drawn from De civili dominio, and as the Great Schism opened. It is the first of the great ecclesiological treatises, and the others (De officio regis, De potestate pape) build on its definition.

The text. Loserth’s edition (1886) prints the treatise from Vienna, ÖNB Cod. Pal. 1294 (A), with Vienna 3929 (A₁), which he judges "almost wholly valueless", and Prague, University Library X.D.11 (B), whose early reader’s glosses he prints in the apparatus. Dublin, TCD C.1.23 (D) has chapter 7 only. Our Latin is Loserth’s printed text, established from three scans of the edition and read on the plates where they disagree. In the printed scripture references the chapter numbers are Wyclif’s; the verse numbers are Loserth’s.

The move. Wyclif does not begin with the pope, the bishops or endowment. He begins with Aristotle’s order of knowing: one must know what a subject is before one can know its attributes. The church’s liberty, privileges and prosperity, which are what the bishops fight about, are attributes. So the bishops cannot argue about them until the church’s quiddity is settled. The quiddity is then fixed in a single sentence (5.11–13), and every later question of headship and membership is made to hang on it.

Where it is answered. In Hus’s De ecclesia (1413), whose dependence on this treatise Loserth argued in Hus und Wiclif (1884). And at Constance (1415), whose first condemned article of Hus is this definition (DS 1201). In English: extracts only (Penn 2019, criticised on this very paragraph by Thakkar, Vivarium 58 (2020), 368).

¶11.2–2.23

1Quia nonnulli, eciam illi qui videntur esse aliquid discordant in materia de quiditate ecclesie, et fides est ecclesia que deberet in christianis omnibus esse una, decet christianos cognoscere matrem suam. Quomodo queso honoraret quis matrem illam primevam, sicut quilibet christianus tenetur sub pena dampnacionis ex primo mandato secunde tabule, nisi ipsam cognosceret? Aut quomodo ipsam perfecte cognosceret nisi cognoscendo eius quiditatem ac differencias sciretque a mulieribus alienis discernere? Unde inter omnes metaphisicas sub solis circulo non reputo quod sit alia christiano necessarior nec ad observanciam religionis christiane vel ad intelligenciam scripture sacre utilior. Christus enim ex fide est pater noster et dicta ecclesia sponsa sua est autonomatice mater nostra. Illos autem parentes debemus primo omnium honorare, quia recognoscendo eos in necessitatis articulo oportet eorum informacionem, castigacionem et suffragium invocare. Illis autem cultis ad plenum servatur plene christiana religio et de quanto deest eorum honoracio, deest preceptorum servacio, cum non sit possibile christianum delinquere, nisi de quanto subtrahit vel 2minuit honorem vel ministerium debitum istis parentibus. Et hec est racio, quare hoc precipitur in primo mandato secunde tabule tamquam metro et regula omnium aliorum. Quomodo ergo foret catholicus qui ignoraret partem simboli in qua fides matris sue inseritur? Nam credo ecclesiam catholicam dicit utrumque simbolum; nec credo dominis episcopis displicere quod tractetur fides christiana de quiditate ecclesie, tum quia ipsi maxime tenentur per se et per alios docere populum illam fidem, tum eciam quia contendunt de libertate et prosperitate, de edificacione et destruccione, de privilegiis et defensionibus ecclesie contra hereticos. Sed constat quod loqueretur ut pica qui tractaret de istis passionibus ignorando subiectum, cum secundo posteriorum in principio vere dicitur quod oportet cognoscere questionem, quid est de subiecto, antequam noscatur eius passio. Et error istius ordinis noscendi facit multos errare de fide ecclesie. Quomodo queso cognoscerem in quo staret eius prosperitas vel edificacio, nisi ipsam precognoscerem, cum sequatur: ego cognosco quod procedit prospere, ergo prius nosco illam esse? Adhibeamus ergo diligenciam, ut cognoscamus debite matrem nostram.

Because some, even those who seem to be something,1 disagree on the question of the quiddityquiditas: quiddity of the churchecclesia: church, and [the object of] faith is the church, which ought to be one in all Christians,2 it befits Christians to know their mother. How, I ask, would anyone honour that primeval mother, as every Christian is bound to do under pain of damnation by the first commandment of the second table,3 unless he knew her? Or how would he know her perfectly except by knowing her quiddity and differencesdifferencia: difference (logical differentia), and knowing how to tell her apart from strange womenmulier aliena: strange woman?4 Hence among all the metaphysicsmetaphisica: metaphysics under the circle of the sun I do not reckon that there is another more necessary to a Christian, nor more useful for the observance of the Christian religion or for the understanding of holy scripture.5 For, as faith teachesex fide: as faith teaches; with a genitive, from the faith of [scripture], Christ is our father, and the said church, his bridesponsa / sponsus: bride / bridegroom, is by antonomasiaautonomatice / antonomastice: by antonomasia (pre-eminently) our mothermater nostra: our mother.6 Now those parents we ought to honour first of all, because in acknowledging them we must, at the point of needin necessitatis articulo: at the point of need, call upon their instruction, correction and aid. And when they are honoured to the full, the Christian religion is fully kept; and to the extent that honour to them is lacking, the keeping of the commandments is lacking, since it is not possible for a Christian to transgress except to the extent that he withdraws or 2diminishes the honour or service owed to these parents. And this is the reason why this is commanded in the first commandment of the second table, as the measure and rule of all the others. How, then, would he be a catholic who was ignorant ofignorare: to be ignorant of the part of the creed in which the faith concerning his mother is set down? For both creeds say "I believe the catholic church";7 nor do I believe it displeases the lord bishopsepiscopus; dominus episcopus: bishop; the lord bishop that the Christian faith concerning the quiddity of the church should be treated, both because they themselves are bound above all, by themselves and through others, to teach the people that faith, and also because they contend about the liberty and prosperity, the building up and the destruction, the privileges and the defences of the church against heretics.8 But it is evident that one who treated of these attributessubiectum / passio: subject / attribute while ignorant of the subjectsubiectum / passio: subject / attribute would be speaking like a magpie, since at the beginning of the second book of the Posterior Analytics it is truly said that one must know the question "what is it?" about the subject before its attribute is known.9 And error in this order of knowing makes many err about the faith of the church. How, I ask, could I know in what her prosperity or building up consisted unless I knew her beforehand, since it follows: "I know that she is prospering; therefore I first know that she exists"?10 Let us, then, apply diligence, so that we may duly know our mother.

¶22.25–3.13

2Quamvis autem ecclesia dicatur multipliciter in scriptura, suppono quod sumatur ad propositum pro famosiori, scilicet congregacione omnium predestinatorum. Illa autem est sponsa Christi, de qua est processus Cantici canticorum; de qua loquitur scriptura Isaie LXI°, 10: Tamquam sponsam decoravit me corona. Hec eciam est mulier fortis, de qua 3Proverb. XXXI°, 10, et corpus Christi misticum, de quo Iª Cor. 12°. Ista est Jerusalem, mater nostra, templum domini, regnum celorum et civitas regis magni, que tota inquit Augustinus Enchiridion XLVI°, accipienda est non solum ex parte qua peregrinatur in terra a solis ortu usque ad occasum, laudans nomen domini, et post captivitatem vetustatis cantans canticum novum, verum eciam ex illa que in celis semper ex quo condita est cohesit deo, nec ullum malum sui casus est experta. Hec enim in sanctis angelis beata persistit et sue parti peregrinanti, sicut oportet, opitulatur, quia utraque una erit consorcio eternitatis et nunc est una vinculo caritatis.

And although "church" is said in many waysdicitur multipliciter: is said in many ways in scripture, I suppose that for the present purpose it is taken for its best-knownfamosior: best-known [sense] [sense], namely the congregation of all the predestinatepredestinatus, -i: the predestinate (sg. "a predestinate [person]").11 And that church is the bride of Christ, of whom the courseprocessus (of a book): the course, the argument of the Song of Songs treats; of whom scripture speaks in Isaiah 61:10: "As a bride he has adorned me with a crown."12 She is also the valiant womanmulier fortis: valiant woman of 3Proverbs 31:10, and the mystical body of Christcorpus Christi misticum: the mystical body of Christ, of which 1 Corinthians 12 speaks. She is Jerusalem our mother, the temple of the Lord, the kingdomregnum: kingdom of heaven and the city of the great king, "which as a whole", says Augustine in the Enchiridion, "is to be taken not only in the part in which she is a pilgrimpars peregrinans; peregrinari: the pilgrim part; to be a pilgrim on earth, praising the name of the Lord from the rising of the sun to its going down, and, after the captivity of her old state, singing a new song, but also in that part which in heaven has always, since it was founded, cleaved to God, and has experienced no evil of its own fall. For this part persists blessed in the holy angels, and helps its pilgrim part, as it should, because both will be one in the fellowship of eternity, and are now one in the bond of charitycaritas: charity."13

Notes

  1. 1 Gal. 2:6 (Vg ab iis autem qui videbantur esse aliquid; DR "But of them who seemed to be some thing"): Paul’s phrase for the Jerusalem leaders, turned here on the church’s present authorities. Wyclif has the present videntur; we translate his Latin.
  2. 2 et fides est ecclesia que deberet in christianis omnibus esse una. Literally "and faith is [the] church which ought to be one in all Christians". The construal is doubtful. (a) We take the clause to mean that the church is an object of faith, as the creed puts it below (2.6), and take que with ecclesia (unam … ecclesiam). (b) Que may instead go with fides ("one faith", Eph. 4:5), giving "and the faith that ought to be one in all Christians concerns the church". Loserth records no variant; the sentence may be disturbed. Our English keeps reading (a) and marks the supplied words.
  3. 3 The second table of the Decalogue holds the commandments toward one’s neighbour. Its first is "Honour thy father and thy mother" (Exod. 20:12). Wyclif applies it to the church as mother, and at 2.2–3 makes it the "measure and rule" of the rest.
  4. 4 Mulieribus alienis, "strange women", is the mulier aliena of Proverbs (2:16; 5:3, 20; 7:5; DR 2:16 "the strange woman"). The false church is the woman who must not be mistaken for the mother. Differencias are differences in the logical sense, the marks that set a species apart in its genus.
  5. 5 Penn construed non reputo quod sit alia christiano necessarior as "none is held to be more necessary than the Christian one". The syntax gives the reverse. No other metaphysics is more necessary for a Christian, and alia implies that the doctrine of the church’s quiddity is itself a metaphysics (Thakkar, p. 368).
  6. 6 Autonomatice: Loserth’s printed form, while he reports the MSS as autonomastice (apparatus to 1.16). Both stand for antonomastice: she has the name "mother" pre-eminently, as the one to whom it belongs by right.
  7. 7 Apostles’ Creed: Credo … sanctam ecclesiam catholicam. Nicene–Constantinopolitan: et unam sanctam catholicam et apostolicam ecclesiam. The Latin has credo ecclesiam, not credo in ecclesiam: one believes in God, and believes the church. Hence "I believe the catholic church", not "believe in". The classic statement is Rufinus, Commentarius in symbolum apostolorum 36 (PL 21:373A–B): in praepositio non additur … sed sanctam Ecclesiam credendam esse, non ut Deum, sed ut Ecclesiam Deo congregatam. Thakkar (p. 368) corrects Penn’s "represent a symbol everywhere!" here.
  8. 8 Tum … tum eciam: two separate reasons why the bishops should welcome the treatise. First, they are bound to teach this faith. Second, they are themselves forever disputing the church’s liberty, prosperity and privileges, which (the next sentence shows) are attributes of a subject they have not defined. Quod tractetur fides christiana de quiditate ecclesie means that the faith about the church’s quiddity be treated. Not Penn’s "that the Christian faith is drawn from the quiddity of the church" (Thakkar, p. 368). Contra hereticos is taken with defensionibus ("defences … against heretics"); it could go with contendunt ("they contend against heretics about …"), but it stands at the far end of the list.
  9. 9 Loserth refers to APo I.1 and II.2. The maxim is a scholastic compression, not a quotation. It combines Aristotle’s doctrine that learning presupposes knowledge of what a term means (I.1, 71a11–17) with the ordering of the questions "whether it is" and "what it is" before "that it holds" and "why" (II.1–2; the four questions at II.1, 89b23–35). B’s margin gives the reference (2° posteriorum, apparatus to 2.15). The magpie is the stock image of speech without understanding.
  10. 10 Cum sequatur: Wyclif states the inference he means, in quotation form: from "I know that she prospers" to "I first know that she exists". Precognoscerem: Loserth glosses it with Aristotle’s progignōskein (APo I.1, 71a1), pre-existent knowledge.
  11. 11 Sumatur … pro famosiori: "is taken for the best-known [sense]", the language of supposition. Congregacio omnium predestinatorum: the definition on which the treatise rests. It returns as the conclusion at 5.11–13.
  12. 12 A conflation. Vg Isa. 61:10 reads quasi sponsum decoratum corona, et quasi sponsam ornatam monilibus suis (DR "as a bridegroom decked with a crown, and as a bride adorned with her jewels"). Wyclif puts the bride where the Vulgate puts the bridegroom’s crown. We translate his Latin. For the valiant woman, DR Prov. 31:10: "Who shall find a valiant woman?"
  13. 13 Augustine, Enchiridion 56. Loserth prints the chapter as XLVI, correcting the MSS' XLI (plate checked), and refers to the Maurist edition, vol. VI, p. 217; neither number is the modern 56 (15.56). Wyclif quotes closely. B’s margin at 3.10: Nota quod angeli sunt pars ecclesie, "note that the angels are a part of the church".
How the Latin of this chapter was established
  • Plate readings; page · reading · note):
    • 1: CAP. I.
    • 3: Iª
    • 3: 12°. (degree sign, round) [-MARK]
  • 1.16 autonomatice: as printed; apparatus "Codd. autonomastice" (n. 6).
  • 3.4 Enchiridion XLVI°: Loserth’s correction ("In codd. XLI. Correxi").
  • Variants noted but not affecting the English: 1.5 B igitur decet; 1.18 B et recognoscendo; 1.21 B de quarto; 2.2 B Hec racio; 2.16 B cognoscere quomodo; 2.20 B prius cognoscerem; 3.5 AA₁ que, B peregrinat.