Wyclif’s Latin works

De ecclesia, chapter 18, part 2

One church militant and triumphant; Cardinal John on Fundamenta

Loserth pp. 418.2–422.18

¶1418.2–420.18

418ecclesia quod est unum corpus Christi misticum compositum ex ecclesia militante, dormiente et triumphante, sicut allegatus est superius Augustinus, Encheridion LXIV° cap., LXV° cap. et LXIX° cap., et in De Questionibus veteris et nove legis cap. XLVII°. Non ergo tantum differunt sicut substancia et suum accidens, cum utraque ecclesia dicitur substancia eiusdem speciei specialissime, quia homo; ymmo secundum philosophos substancia et accidens sunt unum aliquo modo, quia unum per accidens, sicut oportet doctorem dicere de personis ecclesie et fide qua ille persone sunt formaliter ecclesia. Et quantum ad evidenciam captam ex testimonio Augustini, patet quod inducit ignoranciam arguentis. Nam verum est (ut sepe docet Augustinus ex fide scripture) quod ecclesia est maculata et rugosa dum militat, sed omnino sine mortali vel veniali dum triumphat. Sed omnino dementis foret ex istis arguere diversitatem specificam illarum ecclesiarum, vel quod non fit una ex illis, vel quod una infinitum excedit aliam in perfeccione essenciali. Nam beatus viator et dampnatus sunt eiusdem speciei specialissime, componunt unum genus humanum et sunt pares in perfeccione essenciali; et tamen sunt illius condicionis quod inferior est plenus macula et rugosus, et secundus est omnino sine macula vel ruga. Accidens ergo non variat tantum unam substanciam ab alia. Nec valet dicere quod est dare unum aggregatum ex substancia et accidente, ut puta ex habitu fidei infuso et substancia aggregatis, tum quia negatur talis unitas in fundamento responsionis, tum eciam quia talis habitus fidei manens perpetuo migraret de subiecto in subiectum et reciperet peregrinas predicaciones formales alienas a natura universalium, unde in confirmacionem supradicte sentencie. 419Et contra istam sentenciam pertinenter notandus est Cardinalis in VI°, De Eleccionibus, cap. Fundamenta. Pertinenter dico, primo quia cardinalis, secundo quia papa et tota curia approbavit suam sentenciam in hac parte, et tercio ex affeccione nominis et cognominis, cum fuit Johannis Monachi. Scribit enim primo describendo ecclesiam quod est convocacio fidelium, quia omnes fideles ad se vocat, cum extra illam unicam non sit salus; hec quandoque dicitur militans et quandoque triumphans: Non, inquit, quia sunt due, sed una, habens diversas qualitates. Intendit autem doctor quod non sunt due ecclesie catholice, sed una tantum, habens duas partes solum per accidens differentes. Ideo subdit: prima est secundum Augustinum in tempore peregrinacionis, altera determinante mansionis, prima in labore, altera in requie, prima in via, altera in patria, prima cum hoste pugnat, altera sine hoste regnat; et hinc prior ecclesia dicitur militans et secunda triumphans. Nam Job VII°, 1 scribitur: Milicia est vita hominis super terram, et Apostolus IIª Thymotei II°, 3: Labora sicut bonus miles Christi Jesu. Oportet enim in via laborare certando contra carnem, mundum et demonem; sed homo superando fit victor et consummata victoria fugatis hostibus fit per Dei graciam triumphator. Et allegat pro modo loquendi leges multiplices. Secundo dicit quod hec ecclesia militans est corpus Christi misticum in quo congregantur fideles. Et inter illos eciam sunt 420infideles, ut allegat per leges multiplices, sed ecclesia triumphans tantum habet bonos, quia in illa non est macula mortalis neque ruga venialis (ut patet De Penitencia, distinccione prima, capitulo Ecclesia), et huius corpus scilicet ecclesie militantis caput est Christus ut sponsus. Et hec ecclesia militans fiet triumphans post resurreccionem universaliter, et cotidie fit triumphans in membris particulariter, ita quod ecclesia militans est sponsa, sed ducta in domum sponsi universaliter vel in suis membris fit uxor. Unde Apoc. XXI°, 9, dixit angelus beato Johanni: Veni et ostendam tibi sponsam, uxorem agni. Sic, inquit, reperio quod illa que est sponsa mariti ducta in domum efficietur uxor, Digestis, De Ritu Nuptiarum, Minorem. Et sicut hoc exemplo eadem mulier primo est sponsa et per qualitatem duccionis adiectam fit uxor, sic ecclesia militans vel anima fidelis hic sponsa Christi ducta in celestem Jerusalem uxor censebitur.

and [it is clear that] the churchecclesia: church is that which is one mystical body of Christcorpus Christi misticum: the mystical body of Christ, composed of the church militant, sleeping and triumphantecclesia militans / triumphans / dormiens: the church militant / triumphant / sleeping, as Augustine was allegedallegare / allegacio: allege / allegation above, Enchiridion chapter 64, chapter 65 and chapter 69, and in On the Questions of the Old and New Law, chapter 47.1 Therefore they do not differ as much as a substance and its accident, since each church is called a substance of the same most special species, namely man; indeed, according to the philosophers, substance and accident are one in some way, namely one by accident, as the doctor must say of the persons of the church and of the faith by which those persons are formally the church.2 And as to the evidenceevidencia: evidence taken from the testimony of Augustine, it is clear that it brings out the ignorance of the one arguing. For it is true (as Augustine often teaches from the faith of scriptureex fide: as faith teaches; with a genitive, from the faith of [scripture]) that the church is spotted and wrinkled while it is militant, but wholly without mortal or venial [sin] while it triumphs. But it would be wholly a madman’s [part] to argue from these a specific diversity of those churches, or that one [church] is not made of them, or that one infinitely exceeds the other in essential perfection.3 For a blessed [man], a wayfarerviator: wayfarer and a damned [man] are of the same most special species, make up one human race, and are equal in essential perfection; and yet they are of such a condition that the lower is full of spot and wrinkled, and the second wholly without spot or wrinkle.4 An accident therefore does not make one substance differ so much from another. Nor is it of avail to say that one may posit one aggregate of substance and accident, for instance of the infused habit of faithhabitus fidei: habit of faith and the substances aggregated: both because such a unity is denied in the foundation of the reply, and also because such a habit of faith, remaining perpetually, would migrate from subjectsubiectum / passio: subject / attribute to subject and would receive foreign formal predications, alien to the nature of universalsuniversale; ydea: universal; idea. Whence, in confirmation of the aforesaid teachingsentencia: CONTEXTUAL: teaching / sentence —5 419And against this teaching the Cardinal is pertinently to be noted, on the Sext, On Elections, chapter Fundamenta. Pertinently, I say: first because [he was] a cardinal; second because the popepapa: pope and the whole curia approved his teaching in this part; and third from the affection of name and surname, since it was [the teaching] of John the Monk.6 For he writes first, definingdescripcio: definition the church, that it is the convocation of the faithful, because it calls all the faithful to itself, since outside that one [church] alone there is no salvation; this is sometimes called militant and sometimes triumphant: "Not," he says, "because they are two, but one, having diverse qualities." And the doctor maintainsintendere (a thesis): maintain that there are not two catholic churches but one only, having two parts differing only by accident.7 Therefore he adds: "The first is, according to Augustine, in the time of pilgrimage, the other [in the eternity] of abiding; the first in labour, the other in rest; the first in the wayvia / patria: the way / the homeland, the other in the homelandvia / patria: the way / the homeland; the first fights with the enemy, the other reigns without an enemy; and hence the former church is called militant and the latter triumphant. For in Job 7:1 it is written: 'The life of man upon earth is a warfare'; and the Apostle, 2 Timothy 2:3: 'Labour as a good soldiermilicia; milites: knighthood; knights of Christ Jesus.' For one must labour on the way, striving against the flesh, the world and the devil; but a man by overcoming becomes victor, and, the victory consummated and the enemies put to flight, becomes by the grace of God a triumpher." And he alleges manifold laws for this manner of speaking.8 Second, he says that this church militant is the mystical body of Christ in which the faithful are gathered. And among them there are also 420unbelieversinfidelis: unbeliever; with a dative, faithless (to), as he alleges by manifold laws; but the church triumphant has only the good, for in it there is no spot of mortal [sin] nor wrinkle of venial (as is clear, On Penance, distinction 1, chapter Ecclesia); and of this body, namely of the church militant, Christ is the headcaput: head as bridegroomsponsa / sponsus: bride / bridegroom.9 And this church militant will become triumphant universally after the resurrection, and daily becomes triumphant in its membersmembrum: member particularly; so that the church militant is a bridesponsa / sponsus: bride / bridegroom, but, led into the house of the bridegroom universally or in its members, it becomes a wife. Whence, Apocalypse 21:9, the angel said to blessed John: "Come and I will shew thee the bride, the wife of the Lamb." "So," he says, "I find that she who is the bride of a husband, led into the house, will be made a wife: Digest, On the Rite of Marriages, [the law] Minorem." And as by this example the same woman is first a bride and by the added quality of being led home becomes a wife, so the church militant, or a faithful soul, here the bride of Christ, led into the heavenly Jerusalem, will be reckoned a wife.10

¶2420.19–420.26

420Istam celestem legem de articulo fidei a scriptura sacra per sanctos doctores et doctores iuris canonici elaboratam addiscerent legiste precipue et omnes catholici. Christus, inquit doctor, dicitur lapis angularis, duos parietes connectens adinvicem, quia ab Abel iusto in veteri testamento usque ad novissimum electum in fine seculi fideles connectit, constituendo ecclesiam, continue manens summus.

This heavenly law concerning an article of faitharticulus fidei: article of faith, worked out from holy scripture by holy doctors and by doctors of canon law, the legists above all, and all catholics, should learn.11 "Christ," says the doctor, "is called the corner stone, joining two walls together, because from Abel the just in the old testament to the last elect at the end of the world he joins the faithful together, constituting the church, remaining continually highest."12

¶3420.27–422.18

420Ex istis tercio patet destruccio erroris triplicis supradicti. Nam dicte differencie inter ecclesiam militantem et triumphantem non sunt differencie substanciales, sed valde accidentales, quia aliter nulla ecclesia militans foret triumphans; quod est contra predicta 421et contra totam speciem militantis ecclesie. Si enim ista multitudo erit ecclesia triumphans, et ista multitudo est ecclesia militans, infallibiliter sequitur quod ecclesia militans erit ecclesia triumphans. Ex quo patet quod non differrent perfeccione essenciali excessu infinito, sicut substancia et accidens, et, si nemo militans Deo post victoriam triumphabit, periret ab ecclesia animus militandi contra scripturam IIª Tim. IV, 8: De reliquo reposita est mihi corona iusticie quam reddet mihi in illa die iustus iudex; non quod nulla ecclesia est triumphans vel beata ante diem iudicii, sicut fingunt heretici, sed ut dicit Cardinalis particulatim: sicut spiritus transeunt ad gloriam, sic erunt ecclesia triumphans que quondam fuit militans. Ex quo secundo sequitur quod spiritus hominis est eadem persona cum homine, quia ecclesia que est modo militans, hoc est, multitudo personarum fidelium erit triumphans in nudo spiritu; aliter enim non diceret Apostolus ad Philippenses 1°, 23: Desiderium habens dissolvi et esse cum Christo, sicut diffuse et pulchre declarat Hugo, De Sacramentis, parte prima libri secundi, cap. XI°, in quo diffuse declarat quod Christus separata anima a carne et persona fuit et Deus et homo, ubi inter alia sic scribit: Anima quippe in quantum spiritus est racionalis ex se et per se habet esse personam, et quando corpus ei sociatur, eadem cum ipsa persona esse incipit; in quantum enim corpus cum anima unitum est, una persona cum anima est, sed tamen personam esse anima ex se habet, in quantum est racionalis spiritus, corpus vero hoc habet ex anima, in quantum unitum 422est racionali spiritui. Istam autem materiam diffuse exposui in quodam tractatu De Anima, ubi ostendi quod anima, corpus et compositum sunt tres res sed idem homo in numero. Et idem expresse dicit venerabilis Anselmus in De Incarnacione cap. VII° quod, sicut in materia de trinitate multe persone sunt una substancia, sic in materia de incarnacione multe substancie vel nature sunt una persona. Et beatus Bernardus in Sermone De Nativitate qui sic incipit Hodie scietis quia veniet dominus. Attende, inquit, quia sicut in illa singulari divinitate trinitas est in personis, unitas in substancia, sic in ista speciali conmixcione incarnacionis trinitas est in substanciis, in persona unitas, utrobique tamen sine scissione vel confusione substancie vel persone. Verbum enim et anima et caro in unam convenere personam, et hec tria unum et hec unum tria non confusione substancie sed unitate persone.

From these, thirdly, the destruction of the threefold error above is clear. For the said differences between the church militant and triumphant are not substantial differences, but very much accidental, because otherwise no church militant would be triumphant; which is against what has been said 421and against the whole species of the church militant.13 For if this multitude will be the church triumphant, and this multitude is the church militant, it infallibly followssequitur: it follows that the church militant will be the church triumphant. From which it is clear that they would not differ in essential perfection by an infinite excess, as substance and accident do; and if no one soldiering for God will triumph after the victory, the spirit of soldiering would perish from the church, against the scripture, 2 Timothy 4:8: "As to the rest, there is laid up for me a crown of justice, which the just judge will render to me in that day"; not that no church is triumphant or blessed before the day of judgement, as heretics feign, but, as the Cardinal says, one by one: "As spirits pass to glory, so will they be the church triumphant which once was militant."14 From which, secondly, it follows that the spirit of a man is the same person with the man; for the church which is now militant, that is, the multitude of faithful persons, will be triumphant in bare spirit; for otherwise the Apostle would not say, Philippians 1:23: "having a desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ";15 as Hugh declares at length and beautifully, On the Sacraments, the first part of the second book, chapter 11, in which he declares at length that Christ, the soul being separated from the flesh, was both a person and both God and man; where among other things he writes thus: "For the soul, in so far as it is a rational spirit, has of itself and through itself to be a person; and when a body is joined to it, it begins to be one person with it; for in so far as the body is united with the soul, it is one person with the soul; but yet the soul has of itself to be a person, in so far as it is a rational spirit, while the body has this from the soul, in so far as it is united 422to a rational spirit."16 And I have set out this matter at length in a certain treatise On the Soul, where I showed that the soul, the body and the composite are three things but the same man in number.17 And the venerable Anselm says the same expressly in On the Incarnation, chapter 7: that as in the matter of the Trinity many persons are one substance, so in the matter of the incarnation many substances or natures are one person. And blessed Bernard [says it] in the sermon On the Nativity which begins thus, "Today you shall know that the Lord will come": "Attend," he says, "that as in that singular divinitydeitas / divinitas: the Godhead / divinity there is trinity in persons, unity in substance, so in this special commingling of the incarnation there is trinity in substances, in person unity; yet on both sides without division or confusion of substance or person. For the Word and the soul and the flesh came together into one person; and these three [are] one, and this one three, not by confusion of substance but by unity of person."18

Notes

  1. 1 Patet ex testimonio sanctorum et ecclesia quod est unum corpus ... (running on from 18-a) is taken as "it is clear ... and [that] the church is that which is one mystical body"; ecclesia may instead stand beside testimonio ("from the testimony of the saints and of the church, that it is one body"). S. Augustine, Enchiridion 64 (remission of sins in the church), 65 (none outside it), 69 (the purgatorial fire) (PL 40); Quaestiones Veteris et Novi Testamenti 47, the work of Ambrosiaster under Augustine’s name (PL 35, 2247–2248).
  2. 2 Species specialissima: the lowest species, here man. Unum per accidens: the unity of a substance with its accident, which the doctor must grant of the persons of the church and the faith by which they are formally church.
  3. 3 Inducit ignoranciam arguentis: the appeal to Augustine shows the arguer’s ignorance. Non fit una ex illis: "is not made", as the plate prints; sit would give "is not one [church] of them" (cf. 417, nullo modo est una ecclesia ex hiis). S. "Spot and wrinkle": Ephesians 5:27.
  4. 4 Beatus viator et dampnatus: so the plate (418.21–22); taken as three, the blessed, the wayfarer and the damned. Inferior ... secundus then pairs loosely: the lower (the damned) and the "second" (the blessed). Beatus viator, "a blessed wayfarer", is also possible; the print may be faulty.
  5. 5 Est dare: "one may posit". Substancia aggregatis does not agree; taken as "the substances aggregated". Peregrinas predicaciones: predications foreign to it, as no accident passes from subject to subject. T. At 418.31 B reads et fundamento. Unde in confirmacionem supradicte sentencie has no verb; Loserth queries nude for Unde (418.35); something may be lost at the foot of the page.
  6. 6 Johannes Monachus (Jean Lemoine, d. 1313), cardinal, his gloss on the Sext, VI 1.6.17, Fundamenta (Loserth: Sexti Decret. lib. I, tit. VI, cap. XVII; the modern form is ours), with Loserth’s literature on the gloss, Savigny VI.103 and Jöcher II.1933 (Loserth’s references, not independently checked). C. Ex affeccione nominis et cognominis: the third reason turns on the name, John "the Monk"; Wyclif does not say why it is pertinent. R. A in the margin at 419.1: Cardinalis. Nota distinccionem inter ecclesiam militantem et triumphantem; et ecclesia militans quomodo est hic sponsa et in celis est uxor.
  7. 7 Doctor: here the Cardinal. Describendo: "defining" (glossary: descripcio). R. B in the margin at 419.8: Nota quid est unica ecclesia catholica tantum.
  8. 8 Altera determinante mansionis (419.15–16) does not construe; the plate prints it so. It is translated as altera in eternitate mansionis (our emendation), Augustine’s phrase, Tract. in Ioh. 124.5: una in tempore peregrinationis, altera in aeternitate mansionis; una in labore, altera in requie, whose sequence the passage follows (PL 35). At 419.15 B omits in tempore peregrinacionis. S. Job 7:1; 2 Timothy 2:3. The laws the Cardinal alleges are not given. G. Miles: "soldier", the Pauline figure (glossary: milicia; milites).
  9. 9 B in the margin at 419.28: Ecclesia militans est corpus Christi misticum. S. De pen. D. 1, the chapter Ecclesia; Loserth’s reference is printed "Decr. II pars, causa XXIII, q. III, cap. LXX", but De penitencia stands in C. 33 q. 3, so read XXXIII: C. 33 q. 3 (De pen.) D. 1 c. 70, Jerome on Ephesians, Ecclesia Christi est, non habens maculam neque rugam (Friedberg I, 1180). C. Huius corpus scilicet ecclesie militantis caput: corpus where the sense wants corporis; translated "of this body".
  10. 10 At 420.11 the manuscripts read Apoc. XIX; Loserth’s correction is translated. At 420.16 B reads a directa fit, and at 420.17 fidelis huius. S. Apocalypse 21:9. Dig. 23.2.4, Minorem (Loserth: Dig. lib. XXIII, tit. II, De ritu nuptiarum 4; the modern form is ours). C. Sponsa: in the Digest the betrothed; "bride" is kept for the figure. Duccio: the leading of the bride into the husband’s house. R. A in the margin at 420.6: Conclusio.
  11. 11 Istam celestem legem: the Cardinal’s teaching on the church, an article of faith, which the civil lawyers (legiste, read on the plate) should learn from a canonist; addiscerent is taken as a subjunctive of what ought to be.
  12. 12 The corner stone: Ephesians 2:20 (DR "the chief corner stone"); Psalm 117:22. Abel the just: Matthew 23:35. The words continue the Cardinal’s gloss. T. At 420.24 B reads testamenti. R. A in the margin at 420.22: Quomodo Christus est lapis angularis.
  13. 13 Contra totam speciem militantis ecclesie: as printed; spem "hope" would give the better sense ("against the whole hope of the church militant"), and the print is translated. R. A in the margin at 420.31: Ecclesia nunc militans postea erit triumphans.
  14. 14 2 Timothy 4:8: Wyclif reads De reliquo for In reliquo and omits Dominus (DR "the Lord the just judge"); nemo militans Deo echoes 2 Timothy 2:4 (DR "No man, being a soldier to God"). The Cardinal’s words again from the gloss on Fundamenta. C. Particulatim: one by one, as each spirit passes.
  15. 15 Philippians 1:23. C. In nudo spiritu: in spirit alone, before the resurrection; the church triumphant now is the same persons as the church militant. R. A in the margin at 421.15: Spiritus hominis est eadem persona cum homine; B at 421.21: Quod homo est anima sua.
  16. 16 Hugh of St Victor, De sacramentis 2.1.11 (Loserth: Migne col. 409): Hugh reads Anima quippe in quantum est spiritus rationalis, ex se et per se habet esse personam, which confirms Loserth’s personam; Wyclif rearranges lightly. T. At 421.26–27 the manuscripts read persona; Loserth corrects to personam from Hugh’s text, and his correction is translated. R. A in the margin at 421.21: Hugo.
  17. 17 Wyclif’s own treatise; the teaching is De compositione hominis c. 2 (Society ed., 31: omnis homo est in principio tres nature, scilicet corpus, anima et compositum ex eisdem), whose words B echoes (Loserth gives no reference). T. At 422.3 B reads tres nature sed.
  18. 18 Anselm, Epistola de incarnatione Verbi (Loserth: De fide Trinitatis, Opp. p. 479; Wyclif’s ch. 7; the passage, sicut enim in Deo una natura est plures personae ... ita in Christo una persona est plures naturae, is ch. 6 in Migne, PL 158). Bernard, In vigilia Nativitatis Domini, sermon 3 (Loserth: Opp. p. 41), §8: sicut in illa singulari divinitate trinitas est in personis, unitas in substantia; sic in ista speciali commistione trinitas est in substantiis, in persona unitas (PL 183); its opening words are the Christmas-vigil introit, from Exodus 16:6–7 (DR "In the evening you shall know"). C. Et beatus Bernardus ... has no verb; "[says it]" is supplied from idem ... dicit. T. At 422.7 A and A₁ read vel substancie; at 422.14 the manuscripts read personis, A’s margin persona, ut habetur in textu S. Bernhardi, which Loserth prints. R. A in the margin at 422.5: Anselmus; at 422.9: Bernhardus.
How the Latin of this chapter was established
  • Plate readings; page · reading · note):
    • 418: in
    • 419: ∅ (inserted run is the end of p.418 already in the main scan; p.419 begins Et contra istam)
    • 419: istam
    • 419: primo (1 is a margin argument numeral)
    • 419: fidelium (italic)
    • 419: 1 (italic x-height numeral with no cap height = old-style 1 (leaf zoomed))
    • 419: congregantur (italic)
    • 419: inter
    • 419: illos
    • 420: Christi
    • 420: scriptura (alinea E at the edge, not text)
    • 420: legiste (print reads legiste) [NW]
    • 420: ∅ (see is the English side-note (Hence we see))
    • 420: predicta (pre- here, dicta at top of p.421 with 187 folio mark; main token holds whole word, p.421 pos 0 is et)
    • 421: IIª
    • 421: iustus
    • 420: ∅ ('umphans’ already inside neighbour 53 triumphans) [DELX]
    • 418: Encheridion (Enche-/ridion; ridion absent from output (next token LXIV), so whole word) [-MARK]
    • 418: LXIV° (no comma; followed by cap.) [-MARK]
    • 419: IIª (italic, superscript a) [-MARK]
    • 420: ecclesia (eccle-/sia; output holds both halves; 30 is the line number) [-MARK]