Wyclif’s Latin works

De ecclesia, chapter 1, part 8

The heads of the church; the saints are members, not heads; hoping with misgiving

Loserth pp. 22.6–25.22

¶122.6–25.22

22Hic dicitur quod idem corpus ecclesie habet multa capita, ut quelibet particularis ecclesia habet ad minimum tria capita, scilicet divinitatem, Christi humanitatem et capitaneum illius ecclesie. Ecclesia autem universalis que est totum corpus Christi misticum habet duo capita, scilicet caput extrinsecum que est divinitas et caput intrinsecum que est Christi humanitas, et modo ineffabili divinitas et humanitas Christi sunt duo capita tocius ecclesie et cum hoc eciam unum caput: Sicut filius et spiritus sanctus sunt unus paraclitus, intelligendo principative vel essencialiter, et tamen sunt duo paracliti, intelligendo personaliter (cum Joh. XIV°, 16 dicitur: Ego rogabo patrem et alium paraclitum dabit vobis): sic iste due nature sunt duo capita ecclesie, et tamen sunt personaliter unum caput. Particulares autem ecclesie, sicut fuit pusillus grex cui presidebat sanctus Petrus, non erant nisi iuvencule tocius matris ecclesie, sicut exponit Gregorius XIX° Moralium cap. VIII, declarans etatem ecclesie quomodo in principio fuit soror parvula, carens uberibus predicacionis. Unde sic infert: Universe quippe ecclesie que unam catholicam faciunt adolescentule vocantur. Unde beatum Petrum et alias particulares ecclesias vocat membra illius ecclesie quam leenam nominat, Christum vero leonem (ut 23declarat XXVIII° Moralium cap. XI), dicens quod, sicut membra corporis non sunt ipsum corpus, sic particulares ecclesie non sunt illa sancta ecclesia, sed (ut docet apostolus i° Cor. XII, 12) membra eius. Istis positis dico quod nec dominus Ardmacanus nec aliquis doctor catholicus debet asserere quod aliquis christianus sit caput universalis sed particularis ecclesie, cum non sit color: Hoc caput est illius ecclesie, ergo hoc est caput illius ecclesie; nec est color: Si hoc est caput partis illius ecclesie, ergo hoc est caput illius ecclesie. Sic enim omnis vir foret caput Dei, sicut omnis prelatus inferior foret caput sue matricis ecclesie. Sed apostolus contradicit istis arguciis, I° Cor. XI, 3, dicens: Volo autem vos scire quod omnis viri caput est Christus, caput autem mulieris vir, caput vero Christi Deus. In quo dicto patet ordo capitum et deteccio illarum fallaciarum. Quia aliter eque diceret econtra quod caput Christi et Dei foret tam vir quam mulier. Ecclesia itaque catholica, secundum beatum Gregorium super illo Matthei XXIII°, 34: Ecce mitto ad vos sapientes et scribas, est vinea domini plantata a principio mundi usque ad finem fructificans, quotquot sanctos gignit tot palmites producit. Et sicut nemo est naturaliter caput matris sue sed pars nisi Christus: sic nullus aliorum sanctorum est caput matris ecclesie sed membrum. Sic enim dicit beatus Gregorius (ubi supra) quod beatus Job, beatus Petrus et ceteri precones matris ecclesie sunt os eius, et breviter, quilibet 24aliorum sanctorum proporcionaliter ad analogiam virtutis sue et proprietatis membri corporalis est pars sancte matris ecclesie. Unde beatus Gregorius IV° Moralium cap. XXXII narrat quomodo a principio mundi Deus ordinavit sponse sue patriarchas secundum virtutum principia tamquam membra radicalia ecclesie inserenda, ut patet de innocencia Abel, de mundicia Enoch, de castimonia coniugali Isaac, de tolerancia Jacob, de spe Noe, de obediencia Abrahe, de paciencia Job, de castitate Joseph, de mansuetudine Moysi, de fiducia Josue, de humilitate David, de zelo Helye, et sic discurrendo per omnes species virtutum; que secundum etatem seculi habuerunt in excessu notabili aliquos patriarchas eorum principia in quorum labores sponsus ordinavit posteros intrare (ut dicitur Johannis IV°). Nec solum isti sed omnes eorum imitacionis filii sunt eadem membra sancte matris ecclesie quod, si alicui desit virtutis officium, deerit sibi indubie quod sit sancte matris ecclesie membrum. Nullus autem eorum unquam presumpsit dicere quod sit caput et dominus matris sue, quia indubie, si aliquis homo sit caput tocius generis christiani (quod est sancta mater ecclesia), tunc ipse est Christus, quia solus Christus est huius generacionis principium; alii autem in ipso sunt palmites. Necesse ergo est hodie seminare istam fidem ecclesie, cum multi ex ignorancia occasione male accepta, dormiendo in nocte ignorancie uruntur a sancta matre ecclesia que est pulchra ut luna. Uruntur dico secundum inferiorem hominem pravitate heretica, quia omnes qui dicunt: Ecce hic, et ecce illic est Christus caput ecclesie, solum eius vicarium demonstrantes. 25Oportet autem volentes proficere vel iudicare in ista materia primo cognoscere quiditatem sancte matris ecclesie ad modum loquendi scripture sacre et sanctorum qui sensum eius elucidant. Oportet secundo cognoscere materiam predestinacionis divine, quanto sit nobis incognita. Et tunc tercio possunt discernere, si sit sanum vel stolidum quod asseramus absque formidine nos esse membra sancte matris ecclesie, hoc est, de numero predestinatorum. Debemus autem hoc sperare et credere sed cum formidine de gracia perseverancie: ideo talis fides habet formidinem annexam quam non habet fides qua credimus nos esse in gracia secundum presentem iusticiam, cum casus futuri sit nobis incercior quam actus caritatis vel habitus pro presenti. Unde gentilitati inserte loco Judeorum in ecclesia dicit apostolus Rom. XI°, 20. Noli altum sapere, sed time. Timor ergo de casu a finali perseverancia stat cum spe, et cum caritas secundum presentem iusticiam foras mittit timorem de peccato habito pro presenti, videtur tamen quod omnis homo debet habere pro suo tempore specialem revelacionem, quia aliter non foret in firma spe excuciente omnem timorem.

To this the answer is that the same body of the churchecclesia: church has many heads, so that any particular church has at least three heads, namely the divinitydeitas / divinitas: the Godhead / divinity, the humanity of Christ, and the captain of that church.1 But the universal church, which is the whole mystical body of Christcorpus Christi misticum: the mystical body of Christ, has two heads, namely the extrinsic head, which is the divinity, and the intrinsic head, which is the humanity of Christ; and in an ineffable way the divinity and the humanity of Christ are two heads of the whole church and, with this, also one head: just as the Son and the Holy Spirit are one Paraclete, understanding [it] as principle or essentially, and yet are two Paracletes, understanding [it] personally (since in John 14:16 it is said: "I will ask the Father: and he shall give you another Paraclete"), so these two natures are two heads of the church, and yet are personally one head.2 And particular churches, such as was the "little flock" over which St Peter presided, were nothing but young girls of the whole mother church, as Gregory expounds in Moralia XIX, chapter 8, declaring the age of the church, how in the beginning she was a "little sister", lacking the breasts of preaching.3 Hence he infers thus: "For all the churches which make up the one catholic [church] are called young maidens."4 Hence he calls the blessed Peter and the other particular churches members of that church which he names the lioness, Christ being the lion (as 23he declares in Moralia XXVIII, chapter 11), saying that, as the members of the body are not the body itself, so particular churches are not that holy church but (as the apostle teaches, 1 Corinthians 12:12) its members.5

These things laid down, I say that neither the lord of Armagh nor any catholic doctor ought to assert that any Christian is head of the universal [church], but [only] of a particular church; since there is no colour [in]: "This head is of that church, therefore this is the head of that church"; nor is there colour [in]: "If this is head of a part of that church, therefore this is head of that church."6 For so every man would be head of God, as every lower prelateprelatus: prelate would be head of his mother church.7 But the apostle contradicts these quibblesargucie; argucia: stratagems, quibbles; a quibble, 1 Corinthians 11:3, saying: "But I would have you know that the head of every man is Christ: and the head of the woman is the man: and the head of Christ is God." In which saying the order of heads is plain, and the exposure of those fallaciesfallacia: fallacy. For otherwise he would equally say, conversely, that the head of Christ and of God would be both man and woman.8 The catholic church, then, according to the blessed Gregory on that [word] of Matthew 23:34, "Behold I send to you wise men and scribes", is the vineyard of the Lord, planted from the beginning of the world and bearing fruit to the end: as many saints as it begets, so many branches it puts forth.9 And as no one is by nature head of his mother but a part, except Christ, so none of the other saints is head of mother church but a member. For so the blessed Gregory says (in the place cited) that blessed Job, blessed Peter and the other heralds of mother church are her mouth; and, briefly, each 24of the other saints, proportionally to the analogy of his virtue and of the property of a bodily member, is a part of holy mother church.10

Hence the blessed Gregory, in Moralia IV, chapter 32, relates how from the beginning of the world God ordained for his bridesponsa / sponsus: bride / bridegroom patriarchs according to the beginnings of the virtues, as root members to be grafted into the church: as is clear of the innocence of Abel, the cleanness of Enoch, the conjugal chastity of Isaac, the endurance of Jacob, the hope of Noah, the obedience of Abraham, the patience of Job, the chastity of Joseph, the meekness of Moses, the confidence of Joshua, the humility of David, the zeal of Elijah, and so running through all the species of virtues;11 which [virtues], according to the age of the world, had in notable excess certain patriarchs as their beginnings, into whose labours the bridegroom ordained that those who came after should enter (as is said in John 4).12 Nor only these, but all the sons of their imitation are the same members of holy mother church; so that, if the office of virtue is lacking to anyone, it will without doubt be lacking to him that he is a member of holy mother church.13 But none of them ever presumed to say that he was head and lorddominus; dominari: lord; to exercise lordship / to lord it of his mother; for without doubt, if any man is head of the whole Christian race (which is holy mother church), then he is Christ, since Christ alone is the beginning of this generation; and the others are branches in him.14 It is therefore necessary today to sow this faith of the church, since many, out of ignorance, on an occasion wrongly taken, sleeping in the night of ignorance, are burned by holy mother church, which is "fair as the moon". They are burned, I say, according to the lower man, by heretical depravityheretica pravitas: heretical depravity: for all who say "See here, and see there is Christ, the head of the church", pointing only to his vicar.15

25And those who wish to make progress or to judge in this matter must first know the quiddityquiditas: quiddity of holy mother church, after the manner of speaking of holy scripture and of the saints who elucidate its sense. They must, second, know the matter of divine predestination, how far it is unknown to us. And then, third, they can discern whether it is sound or stupid that we should assert without misgivingformido (sine / cum formidine): misgiving that we are members of holy mother church, that is, of the number of the predestinatepredestinatus, -i: the predestinate (sg. "a predestinate [person]").16 And we ought to hope and believe this, but with misgiving about the grace of perseverance: therefore such faith has misgiving annexed, which the faith by which we believe ourselves to be in grace according to present justice does not have, since a future fall is more uncertain to us than the act or habit of charitycaritas: charity for the present.17 Hence the apostle says to the gentiles, grafted into the church in place of the Jews, Romans 11:20: "Be not highminded, but fear." Fear, therefore, of a fall from final perseverance stands with hope; and although charity according to present justice "casteth out fear" of sin had for the present, yet it seems that every man must have, for his time, a special revelation, since otherwise he would not be in a firm hope that shakes off all fear.18

Notes

  1. 1 Hic dicitur: the answer to Armagh’s objection (A’s margin: Responsio). A reads deitatem (22.8) and deitas (22.12–13), "the Godhead"; the glossary keeps deitas and divinitas apart, and we translate the print. Capitaneus: "captain" (glossary proposal).
  2. 2 John 14:16 DR. Principative vel essencialiter: as one principle, in the one essence, against "personally", as two persons. B principative et (22.16); B lacks eciam (22.13). B’s margin calls the divinity the extrinsic and Christ’s humanity the intrinsic head.
  3. 3 Luke 12:32, DR "little flock"; Song 8:8, DR "Our sister is little, and hath no breasts". Gregory, Moralia XIX: Wyclif’s cap. 8, Loserth’s cap. 12 (the Maurist number; PL 76:108A–B; Opp. I, 613). Iuvencule, "young girls", is kept apart from Gregory’s adolescentule.
  4. 4 Gregory’s sentence glosses Song 1:2, DR "young maidens have loved thee"; wording as PL 76:108B.
  5. 5 Lion and lioness: Wyclif’s Moralia XXVIII.11; the passage is XVIII.35.56 (PL 76:68C–69A), as Loserth gives; XXVIII.10–11 has no lion. Beatum Petrum et alias particulares ecclesias: Peter is counted as a particular church. 1 Cor. 12:12 is a reference, not a quotation.
  6. 6 Non est color: "there is no colour", no plausible ground (glossary: color). Caput universalis sed particularis: we supply "[only]": no one should claim headship of the universal church, only of a particular one. Latin has no article, so the two inferences pass from "a head belonging to that church" and from "head of a part" to "the head of that church"; these are the fallacie named next. A reads at 23.7–8 Nec si hoc est caput illius partis ecclesie, ergo; B has the clause in the margin.
  7. 7 Matrix ecclesia: a cathedral or metropolitan church, kept apart from mater ecclesia, "mother church", of which the whole sentence makes a pun. The inference to "head of God" runs by 1 Cor. 11:3 read backwards, as the next sentences say.
  8. 8 1 Cor. 11:3 DR, which agrees with Wyclif’s Latin. Deteccio: "exposure". B’s margin: Econtra.
  9. 9 Gregory, Hom. in Ev. I.19 (Loserth: Opp. I, 1510), the homily on the vineyard (Matt. 20:1; PL 76:1154B), paraphrased; Wyclif ties it to Matt. 23:34. There Vg has prophetas, et sapientes, et scribas (DR "prophets and wise men and scribes"); Wyclif lacks prophetas, and we translate his Latin. Palmites: "branches", as in John 15:5.
  10. 10 Ubi supra: not the homily, which has no "mouth"; Peter as the lioness’s mouth is Moralia XVIII.35.56 (PL 76:68D, hujus leaenae ori); Job as "mouth" is not found. A’s margin: the members of holy church, the bride of Christ, are the saints alone. B sunt (23.29).
  11. 11 Gregory, Moralia IV.32.63 (PL 75:671C–672A; Loserth: Opp. I, 132), on the just from the world’s beginning (Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob); the virtues are named after the Preface 6.13 (PL 75:524B–C), with David’s humility and Elijah’s zeal from X.6.9 (PL 75:925A–B); Joseph’s chastity is Wyclif’s. Loserth notes that the MSS have cap. X and that he has corrected it. AA₁ lack de spe Noe … de paciencia Job (24.9–10); the print follows B. Radicalia … inserenda: the figure of grafting from Rom. 11, used again at 25.15.
  12. 12 Que … eorum principia: we take que as the species of virtues, with eorum loosely for earum; B quo secundum (24.13). John 4:38, DR "you have entered into their labours".
  13. 13 B in dubio, "in doubt" (24.18–19, 24.21), for indubie. Imitacionis filii: sons by imitation, not by descent.
  14. 14 B prescripsit (24.20) for presumpsit. Principium … palmites: John 15:5, "I am the vine: you the branches", taken up from the vineyard above.
  15. 15 Song 6:9, DR "fair as the moon"; the burning moon is Ps. 120:6, DR "nor the moon by night": those who take scandal from the church are, as it were, moonstruck. Secundum inferiorem hominem: in the lower, fleshly man. The quia clause has no main verb, and we leave it incomplete. Luke 17:23 (Loserth), DR "See here, and see there"; Wyclif adds est Christus as in Matt. 24:23, and we translate his Latin.
  16. 16 A and B margins: Triplex epilogus. B’s reader asks whether Christ, head of the universal church, should also be called its member. A₁ qui secundum sensum (25.4); B lacks membra (25.8). Formido: the misgiving that qualifies assent (the glossary).
  17. 17 Casus futuri: a future fall from grace. Secundum presentem iusticiam: justice as one now has it. B’s margin restates the point: the wayfarer believes with misgiving that he is a member of the church, but believes without it that he is now in grace.
  18. 18 Rom. 11:20 DR. 1 John 4:18, Vg perfecta caritas foras mittit timorem (DR "perfect charity casteth out fear"); Wyclif lacks perfecta. Videtur tamen: the chapter closes on a difficulty, not a conclusion. B fiat cum spe (25.18). Loserth notes that Hus, De ecclesia, capp. 1–3, draws on this chapter.
How the Latin of this chapter was established
  • Plate readings; page · reading · note):
    • 22: Christi
    • 22: 16
    • 23: declarat (131a is the folio mark)
    • 23: I°
    • 23: Christi
    • 24: dominus
    • 24: Christus
    • 24: Christus
    • 25: Rom. XI° (token spans 'Rom. XI°' (tight space); degree sign present)
  • Print form noted: 23.4 i° Cor. (lower-case numeral; 23.14 has I° Cor.).
  • 24.3 Moralium cap. XXXII: the MSS have cap. X; Loserth’s correction.
  • Variants noted but not affecting the English: 24.6 AB lack secundum; 25.9–10 B hoc sapere.