De ecclesia, chapter 22, part 6

The third confirmation answered: mercy in the punishment of the damned, Augustine against the merciful, and the four kinds of the dead

Loserth pp. 535.3–538.13

¶1535.3–538.2

535Ad terciam confirmacionem negetur assumptum, cum multe oraciones tollunt mala de bestiis pro quibus non orant homines Deum suum. Ymmo si fiat oracio pro omnibus melioratis occasione illius, tunc oraciones sanctorum pro adventu Christi in carne fierent pro toto mundo, nedum pro omnibus bestiis et dampnatis, ymmo pro cunctis inanimatis et singulis creaturis. Omnia enim ista recipiunt perfeccionem et melioracionem, ymmo et ipsum peccatum virtute passionis Christi, et tamen theologi non tam extense loquuntur sicut nec scriptura sacra, ut dicant orandum esse pro talibus ut percipientibus fructum oracionis intentum, licet posset dici eos orare pro talibus tamquam per accidens consequentibus ad fructum per se intentum. Conceditur ergo quod dyabolus et omnes dampnati recipiunt quoddam bonum ex merito ecclesie; videtur tamen mihi quod non sit bonum eis expediens vel utile, sed bonum tollens eis fugibile; dampnacio enim tollit quodlibet bonum honestum et utile in dampnato. Conceditur tamen (ut tangitur in secundo commento mendacii) quod Deus misericorditer punit dampnatos. Et notat Augustinus XXI°, De Civitate Dei, cap. XXIV°. Sic enim secundum Augustinum Deus non continet in ira sua miseraciones suas eciam dampnatis, sed facit eos non tanta quanta digni sunt penarum atrocitate puniri, non ut eas penas vel nunquam subeant vel ante finiant, sed ut eas miciores quam merita sunt eorum levioresque paciantur; sic enim ira Dei manebit et in ipsa ira sua miseraciones 536suas non continebit. Sed quia dixit sacrum Psalmum intelligere de membris suis predestinatis in quibus peccatum est mutacio dextere excelsi, ideo prosequitur dicens: Hoc quidem non ideo confirmo, quoniam non resisto. Hoc autem utrobique detestatur iste sanctus cum aliis quod vel pena membrorum dyaboli pro instanti temporis finiatur, vel postquam fuit intensior per ecclesie suffragia remittatur, licet credi posset probabiliter quod omne peccatum est minus malum et minus punibile propter meritum Jesu Christi. Unde quia Augustinus, cap. XVII°, libri XXIⁱ, recitat quomodo quidam commendant istam sentenciam, quia pia, sed (ut arguit, cum non habet auctoritatem ex scriptura sed eius oppositum), tunc foret melior et verior, si misericordior. Extendatur ergo fons huius misericordie ad dampnatos quoslibet quod punientur pena solummodo temporali, vel dicatur misericordius quod pena illa erit brevissima, vel tercio misericordissime quod omnino non erit alia pena post mortem, sed tota scriptura est in ista parte conminatoria sed non vera. Si quis, inquit, audeat ista asserere, tanto invenitur errare deformius et contra recta Dei verba perversius, quanto videtur sentire sibi clemencius. Non seducat nos ergo ceca pietas que, cum sit veritati et fonti iusticie ac pietatis contraria, est blasphema impietas; nam per eius oppositum fides catholica integratur, conversacio militantis ecclesie timore pene melioratur et spes maioris beatitudinis confirmatur; et correspondenter illi qui videntur magis placere dyabolo magis nocent, et hinc indubie possunt expectare amplius nocumentum. Non ergo oramus pro dyabolo vel sibi 537proficimus quamvis per accidens facimus sibi bonum; nec valet fingere quod nulli christiani sencient istam penam, quia (ut dixi secundum sentenciam beati Gregorii) illi sunt pessimi. Unde Augustinus, XXI° De Civitate Dei, XXV° cap. dicit quod a sana doctrina foret nimis contrarium ut heresiarche qui receperunt in ecclesia baptismum, eucaristiam et alia carismata, post vero ingrate acucius impugnant ecclesiam quam alii infideles, quia non adeo sunt ingrati. Peior, inquit, est desertor fidei et ex desertore obpugnator eius effectus, quam ille qui non deseruit quam nunquam tenuit. Ex istis potest colligi alius sensus dictorum beati Augustini Enchiridion CX°, que ponuntur in decretis XIIIª, q. IIª. Tempus. Ponit enim primo quod in hoc meditulio temporis inter mortem hominis et diem iudicii contingit mereri vel iuvare spiritus defunctorum. Ponit secundo quod eis prosunt suffragia qui, cum viverent hec sibi ut postea possent prodesse meruerunt. Tercio dicit quod de quatuor generibus mortuorum merita superstitum sunt pro valde bonis graciarum acciones, pro mediocriter bonis propiciaciones, pro valde malis sunt vivencium consolaciones, sed mediocriter malis faciunt dampnaciones tollerabiliores, sic quod utrobique valent pie oraciones intente pro mortuis, quia beatis vertuntur in graciarum acciones, purgandis in propiciaciones, dampnatis vero licet non sint adiumenta, prosunt tamen ecclesie militanti et dampnatis qui 538superstites per bona opera meruerunt sunt causa quare micius puniuntur (ut tetigi ultimo capitulo libri Vᵗⁱ).

To the third confirmation, let the assumption be denied, since many prayers take away evils from beasts, for which men do not pray to their God. Indeed, if prayer is made for everything bettered by occasion of it, then the prayers of the saints for the coming of Christ in the flesh would be made for the whole world: not only for all the beasts and the damned, but indeed for all inanimate things and every single creature.¹ For all these receive perfection and betterment, indeed even sin itself does, by virtue of the passion of Christ; and yet theologians do not speak so broadly, as neither does holy scripture, as to say that one must pray for such things as receiving the intended fruit of prayer; although it could be said that men pray for such things as following by accident upon the fruit intended of itself. It is granted, therefore, that the devil and all the damned receive a certain good from the merit of the church; yet it seems to me that it is not a good expedient or useful to them, but a good that takes away from them something to be shunned; for damnation takes away every honourable and useful good in the damned man.² Yet it is granted (as is touched on in the second fabrication of the lie) that God punishes the damned mercifully. And Augustine notes it, City of God 21, chapter 24. For so, according to Augustine, God does not shut up his mercies in his anger even toward the damned, but "makes them to be punished, not with such atrocity of punishments as they deserve: not so that they should either never undergo those punishments or end them early, but so that they should suffer them milder and lighter than their deserts; for so the anger of God will remain, and in that very anger he will not shut up his 536mercies."³ But because he said that the sacred psalm is to be understood of his predestinate members, in whom sin is "the change of the right hand of the most High", therefore he goes on, saying: "This indeed I do not therefore affirm, because I do not resist it." But this the saint, with others, detests on both counts: that either the punishment of the devil’s members should end at some instant of time, or that, after it has been more intense, it should be remitted through the suffrages of the church; although it could probably be believed that every sin is less evil and less punishable because of the merit of Jesus Christ.⁴ Hence because Augustine, in chapter 17 of book 21, recounts how some commend this teaching because it is pious; but (as he argues, since it has no authority from scripture, but its opposite has) it would then be better and truer if it were more merciful. Let the fount of this mercy, then, be extended to any of the damned whatever: that they will be punished with a punishment only temporal; or let it be said more mercifully that that punishment will be very brief; or thirdly, most mercifully, that there will be no other punishment at all after death, but that the whole of scripture is in this part threatening but not true. "If anyone," he says, "should dare to assert these things, he is found to err the more hideously, and the more perversely against the right words of God, the more mercifully he seems to himself to think."⁵ Let not a blind piety, then, seduce us, which, since it is contrary to truth and to the fount of justice and of piety, is a blasphemous impiety; for by its opposite the catholic faith is made whole, the manner of life of the church militant is bettered by the fear of punishment, and the hope of greater blessedness is confirmed; and correspondingly those who seem to please the devil more do more harm, and hence can without doubt expect greater harm.⁶ We do not, therefore, pray for the devil or 537profit him, although by accident we do him good; nor does it avail to feign that no Christians will feel this punishment, because (as I said, according to the teaching of blessed Gregory) they are the worst. Hence Augustine, City of God 21, chapter 25, says that it would be very contrary to sound doctrine that heresiarchs [be freed] who received in the church baptism, the eucharist and other gifts of grace, but afterwards ungratefully attack the church more sharply than other unbelievers, since these are not so ungrateful. "Worse," he says, "is the deserter of the faith, and one made from a deserter into its assailant, than he who has not deserted what he never held."⁷ From these another sense can be gathered of the sayings of blessed Augustine, Enchiridion 110, which are set in the Decretum, C.13 q.2, Tempus.⁸ For he lays down first that in this middle space of time between a man’s death and the day of judgement it is possible to merit or to help the spirits of the departed. He lays down secondly that suffrages profit those who, while they lived, merited that these might afterwards be able to profit them. Thirdly he says that, of the four kinds of the dead, the merits of the survivors are, for the very good, thanksgivings; for the moderately good, propitiations; for the very bad they are consolations of the living; but for the moderately bad they make their damnations more tolerable: so that on every side pious prayers intended for the dead avail; for to the blessed they are turned into thanksgivings, to those to be purged into propitiations; and to the damned, although they are not helps, yet they profit the church militant; and for the damned who, 538while they survived, merited by good works, they are the cause why they are punished more mildly (as I touched on in the last chapter of book 5).⁹

¶2538.3–538.13

538Ex istis potest colligi quantum mundus decipitur in elemosinis perpetuis et exequiis ac ritibus solempnibus mortuorum de perpetuacione elemosine; dictum est hoc cap. XVI° et XXII° cap. libri Vⁱ. Ymmo cum debet esse certum catholico quod modus quo Christus fecit et fieri precepit elemosinas sit quocunque alio modo elemosinandi perfeccior, et est undiquaque facilior, patet quod non mediocriter peccant sed ex superbia et negligencia se accusant qui contempnunt sermonem Christi et adherent prudencie proprie et opinioni seculi. De exequiis vero et

From these it can be gathered how much the world is deceived in perpetual alms and in exequies and solemn rites for the dead. Of the perpetuating of alms this has been said in chapter 16 and in chapter 22 of book 5.¹⁰ Indeed, since it ought to be certain to a catholic that the manner in which Christ made alms, and commanded them to be made, is more perfect than any other manner of almsgiving, and is in every way easier, it is clear that they sin not moderately, but convict themselves of pride and negligence, who despise the word of Christ and cling to their own prudence and to the opinion of the world. But as to exequies and¹¹

Notes

1 The third confirmation (part 4 of this chapter): it is lawful to pray for anyone to whom prayer is useful or from whom it takes away evil, and every merit of the church militant does this for the damned. Wyclif denies the assumption: prayers take evils from beasts, and no one prays for beasts. Pro omnibus melioratis occasione illius: for everything bettered by occasion of the prayer. Nedum … ymmo: not only … but indeed.
2 Ymmo et ipsum peccatum: even sin is bettered, in that Christ’s passion turns it to good. Non tam extense: not so broadly. Per accidens consequentibus ad fructum per se intentum: things that follow by accident upon the fruit the prayer intends of itself. Bonum tollens eis fugibile: a good that consists only in taking something to be shunned away from them, as against a good expediens vel utile. Bonum honestum et utile: two of the three kinds of good, the honourable and the useful (the pleasurable, delectabile, at 544). R. A in the margin at 535.23: Huius contrarium habetur in decalogo, "the contrary of this is held in the Decalogue".
3 Augustine, De civitate Dei 21.24 (Loserth, 535.25: Aug. Opp. VII, 640). "Shut up his mercies" is Psalm 76:10 (Douay–Rheims), which Augustine is expounding; Wyclif has miseraciones for the Vulgate’s misericordias. Secundo commento mendacii: the matter is at 497–98 (chapter 21, 21-b), where Bonaventure argues from Psalm 76:10 that Deus misericorditer punit the damned and concedes it; Wyclif there calls that discussion the first commentum (498), so the ordinal does not match. T. Ante finiant: AA₁ antea finiant; Augustine aliquando, "at some time" (Loserth, 535.25). The print’s ante is translated. C. The quotation is taken to begin at non tanta; Wyclif’s opening clause paraphrases Augustine. R. Side-note 535.25; A in the margin there: Augustinus.
4 Psalm 76:11 (Douay–Rheims). Hoc quidem non ideo confirmo, quoniam non resisto: Augustine in the same chapter (Quod quidem …). C. Dixit sacrum Psalmum intelligere: the infinitive has no expressed subject; taken as "said that the psalm is to be understood" (of the predestinate, not of the damned). Utrobique: on both counts, an end of the punishment or its remission. Pro instanti temporis: at any instant of time. R. Side-note 536.5; A in the margin at 536.12: Contra sentenciam que ponit nullum perpetue dampnari.
5 Augustine, De civitate Dei 21.17 (Wyclif’s "chapter 17 of book 21"); Loserth gives no reference. The paraphrase and Si quis … clemencius rework De civ. Dei 21.17 (Verum si aliquis audet … quanto sibi videtur sentire clementius), though the print sets them in italics. C. The sentence opened by Unde quia has no main clause: Wyclif runs on into Augustine’s argument (if the opinion is good because it is merciful, it would be the better the more merciful it were), which Extendatur ergo carries to its absurd end. Only Si quis … clemencius is marked as quotation; the rest is taken as paraphrase. Conminatoria: threatening only. T. Alia is Loserth’s correction: A aliter, A₁ alicui, B alie (536.20). B contra recia (536.23); B sibi sor, followed by a lacuna (536.24).
6 Ceca pietas: a blind piety, the merciful opinion. Per eius oppositum: by the opposite teaching, eternal punishment. Illi qui videntur magis placere dyabolo magis nocent: taken as "those who seem to please the devil more (with this teaching) do more harm (to the church)", and so may expect greater punishment; it could instead mean that they harm the devil more, though they seem to please him.
7 Augustine, De civitate Dei 21.25 (Loserth, 537.4: the codices read cap. XXIV, corrected by him; Aug. Opp. VII, 646). Ut dixi secundum sentenciam beati Gregorii: not located; perhaps 523–24 (22-b), the decree under Gregory’s name forbidding intercession pro impiis (quamvis christiani fuerint). T. "[be freed]" is our supply: the clause ut heresiarche … impugnant has no verb of its own, and a word may be lost in the print near 537.5–7. C. Quia non adeo sunt ingrati: the other unbelievers are not so ungrateful. Carismata: gifts of grace, the sacraments. Quam nunquam tenuit: the faith he never held. R. Side-note 537.1.
8 Augustine, Enchiridion 110, as Decretum C.13 q.2 c.23 Tempus (Loserth, 537.14: Decreti sec. pars, causa XIII, q. II, c. XXIII; the form is ours). T. AA₁ sensus doctorum, "the sense of the doctors" (537.13). R. A in the margin at 537.13: Augustinus.
9 In hoc meditulio temporis: in this middle space of time. Contingit mereri vel iuvare spiritus defunctorum: "to merit" has no object; taken as "one may merit, or help the spirits", or, if iuvare stands for iuvari, "the spirits may merit or be helped". Utrobique: on every side. The last clause is taken as: for the damned who did good works while they survived, the prayers are the cause of their milder punishment. S. The canon as Loserth gives it (537.22) has three classes: pro valde bonis graciarum acciones sunt, pro non valde malis propiciaciones sunt, pro valde malis, eciamsi nulla sunt adiumenta mortuorum, tamen vivorum consolaciones sunt. Wyclif’s fourth, damnations made more tolerable, is Augustine’s closing clause (ut tolerabilior fiat ipsa damnatio), not a fourth class in Enchiridion 110. "The last chapter of book 5": De civili dominio III c. 27 (Society ed. IV, 640–41: meritum ecclesie facit, quod micius puniuntur, on Enchiridion 110). R. A in the margin at 537.22: Nota quomodo et quibus mortuis prosunt suffragia.
10 The semicolon is printed after elemosine; de perpetuacione elemosine is taken with dictum est. Chapter 16 is of this work (the passage is at p. 370.4); "chapter 22 of book 5" is a cross-reference in Wyclif’s own works, not identified. T. AA₁ read Dictum est hoc cap et 22 (538.6). R. Side-notes 538.3, 538.8; A in the margin at 538.4: Exequie pro mortuis quomodo prosunt et quomodo nocent illis.
11 Modus quo Christus fecit et fieri precepit elemosinas: the manner of almsgiving Christ used and commanded, against perpetual alms. Ex superbia et negligencia se accusant: taken as "convict themselves of pride and negligence"; it could be "accuse themselves out of pride and negligence". De exequiis vero et: the sentence runs on into part 7.

How the Latin of this chapter was established

Plate readings; page · reading · note):
- 535: ante (print: ante finiant, ; finiant, was main pos 216 (iiniant), DEL-accepted)
- 537: sensus (202a is the glued folio mark)
- 537: XIIIª
- 538: Vᵗⁱ (print: Vti). ; punctuation dropped per superscript rule)
- 535: finiant, (print: ante finiant, (was DEL-accepted) (agent 12))