The gloss’s three replies; knowing our mother by faith

Loserth pp. 88.31–92.5

¶188.31–90.8

88Unde glosa obicit in contrarium per duo capitula, videlicet XXIIIª, q. IV, cap. Forte et cap. Hec 89autem vita, ubi vere dicitur quod quamdiu sumus in hoc mundo, non deficiet nobis ruga venialis. Et solvit tripliciter: primo quod ecclesia quandoque large sumitur, ut granum et paleam complectatur, ut in allegatis capitulis, quandoque stricte pro puro grano, ut XXXIIª q. IV: Recurrat, ubi sic scribitur (ut supra tetigi): Itaque, inquit Augustinus, sive intus versari videantur sive aperte foris sint, quod caro est caro est, quod palea est palea est. Et semper ab illius ecclesie que sine macula est vel ruga unitate decisus. Vult iste sanctus dicere (ut patet ex dictis) quod impossibile est prescitum esse membrum sancte matris ecclesie vel predestinatum a maternitate illa deficere, quomodocunque secundum presentem iusticium varientur. Secunda responsio glose est quod aliud est esse de ecclesia et aliud esse in ecclesia, ut patet XXIIIª q. IV: Vasis ire et supra exposui. Tercia responsio distinguit de quadruplici habitudine viantis ad sanctam matrem ecclesiam. Quidam autem sunt in ecclesia nomine et re ut obedientes catholici, quidam nec re nec nomine ut pagani, quidam nomine tantum ut presciti ypocrite, et quidam re licet videantur nomine esse foris ut predestinati, quos satrape videntur in facie ecclesie condempnare. Ecce decretorum concordia sentencie supradicte. Unde videtur nimis blasphema heresis papam vel collegium suum credere quod in quantum eliguntur in illo officio tenent primatum tocius ecclesie. Oportet enim quod sint filii imitacionis in moribus parentum quorum 90pretendunt se gerere vicariam potestatem. Aliter enim sunt de generacione pessima meretricis diaboli. Generacio enim sunt Christi, neque constat ex sanguinibus ut in propagacione naturali neque ex voluntate carnis ut in electis nude ex affeccione carnali neque in electis pro pompa seculi que nascitur ex voluntate viri, sed ex Deo nati sunt tamquam filii imitacionis per graciam adoptantem et tunc ex condicione generis patrizabunt.

Hence the gloss objects, by appeal to two chapters, to the contrary: namely 23 q. 4, the chapter Forte and the chapter Hec 89autem vita, where it is truly said that as long as we are in this world the wrinkle of venial [sin] will not be lacking to us.¹ And it resolves [the objection] in three ways. First, that the church is sometimes taken broadly, so as to embrace the grain and the chaff, as in the chapters cited; sometimes strictly, for the pure grain, as at 32 q. 4, Recurrat, where it is written thus (as I touched on above): "Therefore," says Augustine, "whether they seem to dwell within or are openly outside, what is flesh is flesh, what is chaff is chaff. And [he is] always cut off from the unity of that church which is without spot or wrinkle." This saint means (as is clear from what has been said) that it is impossible for one foreknown to be a member of holy mother church, or for one predestinate to fall away from that motherhood, however they may vary according to present justice.² The second reply of the gloss is that it is one thing to be of the church and another to be in the church, as is clear at 23 q. 4, Vasis ire, and as I expounded above.³ The third reply distinguishes a fourfold condition of one on the road in relation to holy mother church. And some are in the church in name and in fact, as obedient catholics; some neither in fact nor in name, as pagans; some in name only, as foreknown hypocrites; and some in fact, although in name they seem to be outside, as the predestinate whom satraps seem to condemn in the face of the church.⁴ Behold the agreement of the decrees with the teaching stated above. Hence it seems a too blasphemous heresy for the pope or his college to believe that, inasmuch as they are elected to that office, they hold the primacy of the whole church. For they must be sons of imitation in the manners of the parents whose vicarious power they 90claim to bear. For otherwise they are of the most wicked generation of the devil’s harlot.⁵ For they are the generation of Christ: it is neither of blood, as in natural propagation, nor of the will of the flesh, as in those elected merely out of carnal affection, nor, in those elected for the pomp of the world, of that which is born of the will of man; but they are born of God, as sons of imitation, through adopting grace, and then by the condition of their kind they will take after their father.⁶

¶290.9–92.5

90Tercio dicitur ad obiectum de noticia matris nostre quod satis cognoscitur a fideli: est enim dare noticiam distinctam et confusam et utraque potest subdividi, quoad personam vel circumstanciam, quoad sensum vel intellectum, quoad fidem vel racionem. Sic enim cognosco caput ecclesie et tamen ipso ostenso michi nude in specie humana nescirem ipsum ab alio discernere. Unde, cum fide ambulamus et vivimus, consonum est quod nos quasi modo geniti infantes confuse in velamento fidei habeamus noticiam matris nostre: sic enim nec prescitos reprehendimus nec predestinatos extollimus viciose, sed correspondenter ad noticiam tam membra matris nostre quam infideles sibi et nobis inimicos diligimus; illos autem quos videmus vivere secundum legem Dei reputamus esse filios regni, et sic de aliis habemus maiorem evidenciam, de aliis minorem. De illis tamen nunc credimus quod sunt membra matris nostre vel meretricis opposite plus quam fide. Unde, quesito a me de quacunque persona vel populo conversante nobiscum utrum sit membrum matris nostre, sic quod videndo ipsum videamus parcialiter matrem nostram, dico quod ego ignoro sed reputo vel suppono ex modo conversandi sic vel sic, nec est inconveniens sed consonum statui vie quod ignoremus 91et nesciamus in particulari illud quod cognoscimus in communi; et illa scimus demonstracione intellectus limitati per fidem quod hec est mater nostra, licet demonstracio sensualis hoc non certificet. Unde neminem conversantem nobiscum debemus absolute contempnere sed vicia, quia ignoramus si in hoc despicimus matrem nostram et omnino sponsum ecclesie. Et ita certi sumus quod quidquid bene agimus secundum legem sponsi, in hoc honoramus et proficimus matri nostre. Nec est difficile scire voluntatem sponsi, quia ex fide cognoscimus omne factum naturaliter vel meritorie fieri secundum beneplacitum voluntatis divine. Et sic possumus facillime voluntatem divinam cognoscere in effectu, et ita cum omnes debemus esse domestici fidei et sic de familia huius coniugii, debemus regulariter honorem sponsi et profectum sponse utrobique primo intendere, sicut exemplificat, Hugo De Sacramentis, libro II°, parte IIª, secundo capitulo, ex textu apostoli Iª. Cor. XII°. Quamvis enim visio subiectatur in oculo, ipse tamen videt prius toti corpori quam sibi ipsi, et ita de quolibet membro humani corporis in tantum quod naturaliter membrum ignobilius ut brachium exponitur ad mutilacionem pro membro nobiliori ut capite, et quelibet pars naturalis integri intendit principaliter et finaliter conservacionem et bene esse suo toti. Et ita debet quilibet christianus quoad sanctam matrem ecclesiam, nullum membrum contrariando alteri sed iuvando; unde intendens prepostere proprietati commodi aspirat implicite secundum luciferinam superbiam ad honorem Deo proprium qui constituit universitates creaturarum que gracia sui finaliter ordinantur, quelibet autem pars unius tocius 92creati debet plus esse gracia sui tocius quam gracia sui ipsius. Et sic omnes creature et singule sunt finaliter propter Deum: et hec est racio, quare religio christiana ordinatur amare communi vivendo mentaliter in communi. Unde Christus non potuit civiliter dominare.

Thirdly, the answer to the objection about the knowledge of our mother is that she is sufficiently known by the faithful: for there is distinct and indistinct knowledge, and each can be subdivided: as to the person or the circumstance, as to sense or understanding, as to faith or reason. For thus I know the head of the church, and yet, were he shown to me barely in human form, I should not know how to tell him from another.⁷ Hence, since we walk and live by faith, it is fitting that we, "as newborn babes", should have the knowledge of our mother indistinctly, under the veil of faith: for so we neither rebuke the foreknown nor extol the predestinate viciously, but, in correspondence with our knowledge, we love both the members of our mother and the unbelievers who are enemies to her and to us; and those whom we see live according to the law of God we reckon to be "the children of the kingdom", and so of some we have greater evidence, of others less. Yet of them we now believe that they are members of our mother, or of the opposed harlot, more than by faith.⁸ Hence, when I am asked of any person or people whatever living among us whether it is a member of our mother, such that in seeing it we partly see our mother, I say that I am ignorant, but I reckon or suppose, from the manner of living, this way or that; nor is it an absurdity, but in keeping with the state of the way, that we should be ignorant of 91and not know in particular that which we know in general; and we know these things, by a demonstration of the understanding limited by faith, that this is our mother, although a demonstration of sense does not make it certain.⁹ Hence we ought not absolutely to despise anyone living among us, but [their] vices, since we are ignorant whether in this we despise our mother, and altogether the bridegroom of the church. And so we are certain that whatever we do well according to the law of the bridegroom, in this we honour our mother and profit her. Nor is it difficult to know the will of the bridegroom, since we know from faith that everything done comes about, naturally or meritoriously, according to the good pleasure of the divine will. And so we can very easily know the divine will in its effect; and so, since we all ought to be "of the household of the faith", and so of the household of this marriage, we ought as a rule to aim first, in both respects, at the honour of the bridegroom and the profit of the bride, as Hugh exemplifies, On the Sacraments, book 2, part 2, the second chapter, from the text of the apostle, 1 Corinthians 12.¹⁰ For although vision has its subject in the eye, the eye nevertheless sees for the whole body before [it sees] for itself; and so of every member of the human body, so far that by nature a less noble member, such as the arm, is exposed to mutilation for a nobler member, such as the head; and every part of a natural whole aims principally and finally at the preservation and well-being of its whole. And so ought every Christian [to stand] toward holy mother church, no member opposing another but helping; hence one who aims preposterously at the ownness of advantage aspires implicitly, after Luciferian pride, to the honour proper to God, who established the universes of creatures, which are ordered finally for his sake; and every part of one 92created whole ought to be more for the sake of its whole than for its own sake.¹¹ And so all creatures, and each one, are finally for the sake of God; and this is the reason why the Christian religion is ordained to love in common, living in mind in common. Hence Christ could not exercise civil lordship.¹²

Notes

1 The gloss objects to the canon of 88.21 (De pen. D. 1 c. 70; 04-e n. 17) from two canons: Decretum C. 23 q. 4 c. 11 (Forte) and c. 15 (Hec autem vita) (Loserth: causa XXIII, q. IV, capp. XI and XV; the modern form is ours). Ruga venialis: the wrinkle of venial sin, as in the gloss at 88.25.
2 Decretum C. 32 q. 4 c. 2, Recurrat (Loserth: ibid., XXXII, q. IV, cap. II; the modern form is ours); it opens with Augustine, In Ioh. tr. 11.8, but the sentence Itaque sive intus … caro est caro est … palea est is his De baptismo I.17.26 (PL 43), which Gratian reuses (divisus; Wyclif decisus). A margin Triplex solucio (89.3). B in the margin sint quod caro est, quod palea est (89.5). Decisus: the excerpt breaks off, and the singular participle has no subject; "[he is]" is supplied. Ut supra tetigi: earlier in this work. Prescitus: one God foreknows will be damned (the glossary, ). Iusticium (89.14–15, iusti-|cium) is printed so (plate), for iusticiam (so 88.30); translated "justice".
3 Decretum C. 23 q. 4 c. 23, Vasis ire (Loserth; the modern form is ours). A Vasis enim (89.17). A margin: Ecclesia Christi sponsa. Nota (89.14); De ecclesia esse, in ecclesia esse, quid est (89.16). Supra exposui: earlier in this work.
4 Habitudo: here the condition of a person as it relates him to the church (the glossary, ). Viantis: the participle, "one on the road" (the glossary, viantes). Autem opens the division ("And"). B lacks et — nomine (89.20). Satrape: church-court officials wielding delegated power (the glossary, ); in facie ecclesie, publicly, before the church.
5 A margin (89.26): Conclusio. Eleccio pape vel cardinalium non facit eos primatum tenere in ecclesia sed imitacio sancta, "The election of the pope or of the cardinals does not make them hold the primacy in the church, but holy imitation." Filii imitacionis: sons by imitation, not by election; kept literal because 90.7 returns to it. Aliterenimp (90.1) stands so, an OCR scar for Aliter enim; the stray p is not translated. Meretrix diaboli: the harlot set against the bride (cf. 90.26, meretricis opposite).
6 John 1:13, DR "Who are born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God", whose clauses Wyclif glosses one by one. The electi nude ex affeccione carnali are those raised [to office] merely for kinship, the electi pro pompa seculi those raised for worldly show. Generacio enim sunt Christi: the subject is not expressed; we take it as those who truly are Christ’s, the "sons of imitation", not the pope and college as such. B lacks sunt (90.2); A margin Generacio Dei (90.2); A patrissabunt (90.8). Patrizare: to take after one’s father.
7 A margin De noticia (90.9). Si cenim (about 90.12) stands so, an OCR scar; we read Sic enim, "For thus". The other repair, Si enim, "For if", leaves the sentence without a main clause. The not after discernere (about 90.15) is a fragment of the English side-note at 90.16 ("Knowledge not going …"), not Wyclif’s, and is not translated. Noticia distincta / confusa: knowledge of a thing in its parts / in the whole (the glossary, ). The example: Christ the head is known by faith, not by sight.
8 2 Cor. 5:7, DR "For we walk by faith", alluded to. 1 Pet. 2:2: Wyclif quasi modo geniti infantes, the Vulgate sicut modo geniti; DR "As newborn babes". Matt. 13:38, DR "the children of the kingdom". A margin (90.19): Noticiam qualem habemus de ecclesia et de partibus eius hic in via. De illis tamen nunc credimus … plus quam fide (90.25–26): Loserth’s foot, Hic locus corruptus esse videtur; fortasse legendum: tamen non credimus. The print construes and is translated: what we believe of particular persons goes beyond what faith gives, as reckoning (cf. reputo vel suppono, 90.29). On Loserth’s conjecture: "yet we do not believe of them … more than by faith". B iidem (90.26).
9 A margin Questio (90.27), Responsio (90.31); B Unde queso (90.27). Inconveniens: here "absurdity", the logical sense (the glossary, CONTEXTUAL): nothing absurd follows from our ignorance. Conversante, conversandi: "living among us", "manner of living" (cf. conversacio, the glossary, ). Demonstracio: here the pointing out of a thing as "this" (hec est mater nostra), not a proof; illa scimus … quod anticipates the quod-clause.
10 A margin Conclusio (91.11), Hugo (91.17). Ex fide cognoscimus: the verb governs ex, so "from faith", not the formula (the glossary, ). Gal. 6:10, DR "those who are of the household of the faith". Hugh of St Victor, De sacramentis, as Wyclif cites it; libro II° (91.17; book 2, as at 86.6). Loserth: "I have not been able to find this passage in Hugo de S. Victore l. c. but comp. lib. I, pars X, cap. VI"; the figure of the eye that sees for the whole body is in II.2.2 (Soli enim oculi vident … toti corpori; PL 176:416C–D); the bridegroom-and-bride frame is Wyclif’s. The apostle’s text is presumably 1 Cor. 12, the body and its members. Utrobique: in both, the bridegroom’s honour and the bride’s profit.
11 B lacks prius (91.20); AA₁ lack ut brachium (91.22–23); A margin Conclusio (91.29). Subiectatur: has its subject, the eye being the subject in which sight inheres (the glossary, subiectum); ipse is the eye. Intendens … proprietati commodi: "aiming at the ownness of advantage", advantage as one’s own rather than common. Gracia sui in the relative clause: for God’s sake (cf. 92.2, propter Deum).
12 Amare communi (92.4) is printed so (plate); amore communi, "by common love", would run more easily, but the print construes ("to love in common"). Dominare (92.5): so AA₁, which add In vigilia Pentecostes, "on the vigil of Pentecost" (Loserth’s foot). Loserth lists Hus’s reuse of chapter 4 (cf. Hus, De eccl., several folios).

How the Latin of this chapter was established

Plate readings; page · reading · note):
- 88: XXIIIª
- 89: Et (leading a is the margin letter) [NW]
- 89: granum
- 89: palea
- 89: XXIIIª (one token 'XXIIIª,' (pivot splits XXI | IIª))
- 89: ∅ (IIª is the tail of XXIIIª (pos 128); no separate word)
- 90: Christi
- 90: nostre (Q is the alinea letter)
- 90: noticiam (noti-/ciam hyphenated across line)
- 91: ∅ (nothing between et and nesciamus; these words are on p.90 (already in p.90 text))
- 91: ex ('Nor' is side-note text)
- 91: IIª
- 91: Iª
- 92: gracia (141a is the folio mark; R is the alinea letter)
- 92: sui ipsius (token spans two printed words)
Corrected in the Latin: 89.5–6 caro estcaro est; 90.1 Aliterenimp; 90.12 Si cenim; 90.15 not (side-note fragment); 91.17 11°. Printed so (plate), translated with notes: 89.14 iusticium; 92.4 amare.