Wyclif’s Latin works

De ecclesia, chapter 5, part 4

The church a true continuum; Christ the common term and the mean

Loserth pp. 104.18–108.17

¶1104.18–107.11

104Sed adhuc instant sophiste per hoc quod, si ecclesia catholica sit unum corpus et omne corpus est vere continuum, tunc ipsa ecclesia est vere continuum; consequens falsum, quia partes ecclesie distant per quotlibet miliaria sine parte ecclesie media intercepta.: Hic concedi debet conclusio quod ecclesia catholica est vere continuum. Nam omne corpus cuius partes copulantur ad terminum communem est vere contitinuum; dicta ecclesia est corpus huiusmodi, ergo conclusio. Assumptum patet per Aristotelem in Predicamentis, capitulo de quantitate, sic describentem quantitatem continuam. Si ergo dicte ecclesie sit quantitas continua secundum 105quam est formaliter magna, tunc ipsa est vere continua, ymo non solum quelibet pars huius ecclesie continuatur cum aliqua alia eius parte, sed omnes simul copulantur ad eundem terminum communem. Pro quo declarando suppono quod, sicut ecclesia est unum aggregative, sic membrum eius et accidencia sua sunt unum aggregative. Aliter enim non foret multitudinis credencium cor unum et anima una (ut scriptura sacra dicit Act. IV° 32). Ex quo patet quod omnes partes ecclesie collective intellecte copulantur ad eundem terminum communem ex omnibus communibus terminis ecclesie aggregatum. Nam iste communis terminus copulat quamlibet partem quantitativam ecclesie cum alia, hic secundum unam eius partem et hic secundum aliam. Ymo (ut logice loquar) sicut punctus replicatus est tota substancia linee superficiei et corporis quantitatis, sic substancia materialis aggregata est universum corporeum et eius partes sunt proporcionaliter partes mundi. Aliter enim Deus non est locutus per os sanctorum contra scripturam Luce 1°, 70, nec ecclesia foret unanimis uno ore honorificans Deum Rom. XV°. Nec distancia localis nec discontinuacio mathematice quantitatis obest, quia similitas secundum interiorem hominem et adnascencia membrorum ecclesie secundum caritatem excedit unitatem sensibilem. Ulterius, cum maior sit unitas gracie quam nature, ostendendum videtur quod non solum quelibet pars ecclesie continuatur cum alia, nec solum quod omnes partes ecclesie continuantur ad invicem, sed quod quelibet eius pars continuatur cum qualibet. Nam omnis pars ecclesie copulatur cuilibet per eundem terminum communem, ergo omnis pars ecclesie continuatur cuilibet. Pro assumpto suppono quod mediator Dei et hominum Christus Jesus plenus gracie et veritatis faciat quamlibet partem ecclesie prodesse 106cuilibet. Aliter enim non iuvarent se ad integrandum matrem ecclesiam ad profectum cuiuslibet. Tunc arguo sic: Eo ipso quo creatura agendo prodest alteri quodammodo est cum ea, sed quelibet pars ecclesie agendo prodest cuilibet, ergo quelibet quodammodo est cum qualibet. Assumptum videtur ex hoc quod omne sic prodesse est meliorare, et per consequens, ex acquisicione qualitatis que est bonitas est alterare et sic movere, sed secundum philosophum VII°. Phisicorum: In omni motu movens et motum sunt simul. Sic enim concedunt quod sol secundum speciem suam que lumen dicitur est simul cum qualibet parte orbis subluminaris quam alterat, sensibile est ad omnem punctum medii ubi agit speciem suam, et res post sui corrupcionem est in suo effectu modo quo loquitur scriptura Ecclesiast. III° 14: Didici quod omnia opera que fecit dominus perseverent usque in eternum. Ex istis sequitur quod sicut quelibet res est simpliciter eterna secundum esse suum intelligibile, sic est perpetua nedum in sua specie et principiis quiditatis, sed in suis causis individuis et in sua causacione, cum semper sit causacio cuiuslibet rei. Et conformiter est ubique, licet non secundum existenciam individui; et idem videtur sapientem Salomonem sentire Eccl. III° (ubi supra): Quod factum est, inquit, ipsum permanet, que futura sunt iam fuerunt, et Deus instaurat quod abiit. Ecce quomodo primo proponit, quomodo quelibet creatura permanet perpetuo et probat hoc de nobis futuris, eo quod ipsa iam fuerunt, tam in suis causis quam in suis effectibus. Probat hoc iterum de preteritis, eo quod Deus instaurat in fructu operis 107illud quod nobis preteriit; sicut enim sol non posset agere in orbe sublunari secundum suam speciem, nisi anima mundi vel forma eius que est mundialitas deferret speciem ipsam sustentans secundum aliquid sui, sic non esset possibile rem facere quicquam boni post suam corrupcionem, nisi Deus eternus instauret ipsam, causando eius pretericionem, causando eciam quod res succedens se habet in tali ordine. Et movetur quia res que preteriit pro suo tempore ita causat; sicut enim sequitur: Ista creatura hic causat, ergo hic est, ita sequitur: nunc causat, ergo nunc est.

But the sophists still objectinstatur; obicitur: it is objected, by appeal to this: that if the catholic churchecclesia: church is one body, and every body is truly a continuum, then the church itself is truly a continuum; the consequentconsequens / antecedens: consequent / antecedent is false, since the parts of the church are distant by any number of miles, with no part of the church caught between them.1 Here the conclusion should be granted that the catholic church is truly a continuum. For every body whose parts are joined at a common term is truly a continuum; the said church is a body of this kind; therefore the conclusion. The assumptionassumptum: the assumption is clear from Aristotle in the Categories, in the chapter on quantity, who defines continuous quantity thus.2 If, then, the said church has a continuous quantity according to 105which it is formally great, then it is truly continuous; indeed, not only is each part of this church continuous with some other part of it, but all together are joined at the same common term. To make this clear I suppose that, just as the church is one aggregativelyaggregative: aggregatively, so its membermembrum: member and its accidents are one aggregatively. For otherwise "the multitude of believers" would not have "one heart and one soul" (as sacred scripture says, Acts 4:32).3 From which it is clear that all the parts of the church, understood collectively, are joined at the same common term, aggregated from all the common terms of the church. For this common term joins each quantitative part of the church with another, here according to one part of it and there according to another. Indeed (to speak logically), just as the point replicated is the whole substance of the line, of the surface and of the body of quantity, so material substance aggregated is the corporeal universe, and its parts are proportionally the parts of the world.4 For otherwise "God has not spoken by the mouth of the saints", against the scripture of Luke 1:70, nor would the church be "of one mind, with one mouth glorifying God", Romans 15.5 Nor does local distance, or the discontinuity of mathematical quantity, stand in the way, since likeness according to the inner man, and the growing-together of the members of the church according to charitycaritas: charity, exceeds perceptiblesensibilis: perceptible unity. Further, since the unity of grace is greater than that of nature, it seems it should be shown, not only that each part of the church is continuous with another, nor only that all the parts of the church are continuous with one another, but that each part of it is continuous with each. For every part of the church is joined to every [part] by the same common term; therefore every part of the church is continuous with every [part].6 For the assumption I suppose that the mediator of God and men, Christ Jesus, full of grace and truth, makes each part of the church be of profit 106to each. For otherwise they would not help one another to make up mother church whole, to the profit of each.7 Then I argue thus: by the very fact that a creature, by acting, profits another, it is in some manner with it; now each part of the church, by acting, profits each; therefore each is in some manner with each. The assumption appears from this, that all such profiting is bettering, and consequently, from the acquiring of a quality, which is goodness, it is altering, and so moving; now according to the Philosopher, Physics VII: "In every motion the mover and the moved are together." For thus they grant that the sun, according to its species, which is called light, is together with each part of the sublunary sphere that it alters; [that] the perceptible is at every point of the medium where it puts forth its species; and [that] a thing after its corruption is in its effect, in the way scripture speaks, Ecclesiastes 3:14: "I have learned that all the works which the Lord hath made, continue even for ever."8 From these it followssequitur: it follows that, just as each thing is eternal without qualificationsimpliciter / secundum quid: without qualification / in a certain respect according to its intelligible beingens / esse / essencia: a being / being (existence) / essence, so it is perpetual not only in its species and the principles of its quiddityquiditas: quiddity, but in its individual causes and in its causation, since there is always the causation of each thing. And correspondingly it is everywhere, though not according to the existence of the individual; and the wise Solomon seems to mean the same, Ecclesiastes 3 (as above): "That which hath been made," he says, "the same continueth: the things that shall be, have already been: and God restoreth that which is past." See how first he proposesproponere: to propose how each creature remains perpetually, and proves this of the things that are future to us, in that they have already been, both in their causes and in their effects.9 He proves it again of things past, in that God restores in the fruit of the work 107that which has passed from us; for just as the sun could not act on the sublunary sphere according to its species unless the soul of the world, or its form, which is worldhood, carried that species, sustaining it according to something of itself, so it would not be possible for a thing to do anything good after its corruption unless the eternal God restore it, causing its pastness, causing also that the thing succeeding stands in such an order. And he is moved [to say so] because the thing that has passed causes thus for its time; for just as it follows: "This creature causes here, therefore it is here," so it follows: "It causes now, therefore it is now."10

¶2107.12–108.17

107Ex istis videtur quod omnia futura de necessitate evenient et quod nichil anichilari potest. Nam Deus qui non potest impediri ordinat cuncta esse perpetua. Ideo dicit Ecclesiastes (ubi supra): Non possumus eis quicquam addere nec auferre que fecit Deus, ut timeatur. Si enim pretericio rei non potest destrui, multo minus eius esse quod est previe requisitum, nec aliter esset timendus ut Deus nisi sic fecerit. Quando autem variavi ab ista sentencia, non cognovi ut modo, quomodo res habet multiplex esse, sed omne esse posui existenciam individuam rei in suo genere. Sic redeundo ad propositum, patet quod gracia et caritas Jesu Christi que realiter est ipsemet Christus, est terminus communis copulans quodcunque membrum ecclesie cuilibet alteri. Ista autem copulacio per medium terminum communem tam nobilem est longe prestancior quam copulacio per terminum mathematicum. Et hinc reor Christum qui tantum amat communia tam crebro posuisse se medium. Nam ipse est Dei virtus que consistit in medio inter patrem et filium. Unde voluit concipi in equinoccio vernali quod 108habet tam diem quam noctem pro medio diei naturalis Luce I° 36. Hic mensis est sextus illi qui vocatur sterilis. Voluit eciam nasci in medio noctis Sap. XVIII° 14, 15. Cum enim quietum silencium contineret omnia, et nox in suo cursu medium iter haberet, omnipotens sermo tuus domine exiliens de celo a regalibus sedibus venit. Tercio voluit poni in diversorio, quod est hospitaliaria media inter duos vicos. Quarto voluit poni in medio duorum animalium, ut patet Luce, II°. Quinto voluit opponere in medio doctorum, Luce, II° 46. Sexto posuit se in medio discipulorum, ministrando, Luce, XXII° 27. Septimo positus est in medio latronum triumphando Joh. XIX°, 18. Octavo post resurreccionem stetit in medio discipulorum, informando, Joh. ultimo. Iste ergo est abbas promittens Matthei XVIII° 20, quod ubicunque duo vel tres congregati fuerint in nomine suo, in medio illorum est.

From these it seems that all future things will come about of necessity, and that nothing can be annihilated. For God, who cannot be hindered, ordains all things to be perpetual. Therefore Ecclesiastes says (as above): "We cannot add any thing, nor take away from those things which God hath made that he may be feared." For if the pastness of a thing cannot be destroyed, much less its being, which is required beforehand; nor would he otherwise be to be feared as God, unless he had made [them] so.11 But when I varied from this teachingsentencia: CONTEXTUAL: teaching / sentence, I did not know, as I do now, how a thing has manifold being, but I took all being to be the individual existence of the thing in its genus.12 So, returning to the purpose, it is clear that the grace and charity of Jesus Christ, which really is Christ himself, is the common term joining any member of the church to any other. And this joining through a middle common term so noble is far more excellent than joining through a mathematical term. And hence I think that Christ, who so loves common things, has so often set himself in the middle. For he is the power of God, which consists in the mean between the father and the son.13 Hence he willed to be conceived at the vernal equinox, which 108has both day and night as halves of the natural day, Luke 1:36: "This is the sixth month with her that is called barren." He willed also to be born in the middle of the night, Wisdom 18:14–15: "For while all things were in quiet silence, and the night was in the midst of her course, thy almighty word, O Lord, leaping from heaven, came from the royal throne."14 Thirdly, he willed to be laid "in the inn", which is a hostelry in the middle between two streets. Fourthly, he willed to be laid in the middle of two animals, as is clear from Luke 2. Fifthly, he willed to dispute "in the midst of the doctors", Luke 2:46. Sixthly, he set himself in the midst of the disciples, "serving", Luke 22:27. Seventhly, he was set "in the midst" of thieves, triumphing, John 19:18. Eighthly, after the resurrection, he stood "in the midst of the disciples", instructing [them], John, the last [chapter]. This, then, is the abbot who promises, Matthew 18:20, that "wherever two or three are gathered together in his name, he is in the midst of them."15

Notes

  1. 1 A margin Obieccio. Nota de continuitate ecclesie (104.18). B Antecedens falsum (104.21) and cum parte for sine parte (104.22); the print is translated. Instant is the personal form of instatur. Contitinuum (p. 104) is a misprint in Loserth (plate), for continuum.
  2. 2 Terminus communis: Aristotle’s common boundary, at which the parts of a continuum meet. Loserth (104.27): Categories 6, "so too in a body you can take a common term, a line or a surface, by which the parts of the body are joined". Describentem: defining (cf. descripcio, the glossary).
  3. 3 Membrum eius (p. 105): singular in the print, "its member", perhaps for membra; the print is translated. Acts 4:32, DR "And the multitude of believers had but one heart and one soul"; B et scriptura; A Act. I° (105.9).
  4. 4 Punctus replicatus: Wyclif’s view (cf. 97.14–98.22) that a continuum is made of indivisible points, so that the point repeated is the whole substance of line, surface and body. Ut logice loquar: speaking as the logicians do, not as the mathematicians.
  5. 5 Luke 1:70, DR "As he spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets": the saints speak with one mouth because they are one. Rom. 15:6, DR "That with one mind and with one mouth you may glorify God"; codd. Joh. XV, Loserth corrected to Rom. (105.22), translated.
  6. 6 Adnascencia: growing-together, as members on one body. A margin Conclusio. Nota quelibet pars ecclesie continuatur cuilibet (105.26). The quantifiers are kept: each with another, all with one another, each with each.
  7. 7 1 Tim. 2:5, DR "one mediator of God and men, the man Christ Jesus"; John 1:14, DR "full of grace and truth". Matrem ecclesiam: the church as mother (not the matrix ecclesia of the glossary).
  8. 8 A A₁ bonitatis (106.8); A margin Aristoteles. Aristotle, Physics VII.1 (Loserth: Bekker I, 243). Species: the likeness a body puts forth through the medium, as the writers on optics use it. Subluminaris (106.13): so the print (plate), for sublunaris (cf. 107.2); translated "sublunary". A corrumpcionem; A A₁ lack effectu (106.15). Eccl. 3:14: Wyclif dominus … usque in eternum, the Vulgate Deus … in perpetuum (Loserth); DR "which God hath made, continue for ever".
  9. 9 A margin Conclusio. Quelibet res est perpetua in suis causis in divinis et in sua causacione (106.16). Eccl. 3:15 (Loserth) agrees with the Vulgate; DR used. De nobis futuris: of things future to us.
  10. 10 A A₁ idem quod for illud quod (107.1). Mundialitas: worldhood, the form of the world taken as one whole. Pretericio: a thing’s having passed. Movetur: we take Solomon as subject ("he is moved [to say so]"); it may be impersonal, "and the ground is". B illa sequitur (107.11).
  11. 11 A margin Correlarium. Necessitas absoluta (107.12). Codd. impedire, Loserth impediri (107.14), translated; B cunta. Eccl. 3:14b agrees with the Vulgate; DR used. A A₁ Si pretericio (107.17), without enim.
  12. 12 Codd. variam; Loserth variavi (107.20), translated. Wyclif marks a change in his own view of being; the earlier view is not identified here. Sentencia: the position just stated.
  13. 13 A margin (107.23) repeats the sentence on the common term; B margin, later hand, Medium in omnibus tenuit Christus; A margin Quomodo Christus crebro se posuit in medio and Nota octo media. Dei virtus: 1 Cor. 1:24, DR "Christ, the power of God"; virtus also means virtue, which "consists in the mean" (cf. 108.18–20). Inter patrem et filium stands as printed; the construal is doubtful.
  14. 14 Pro medio diei naturalis: day and night each as half of the natural day of twenty-four hours. Luke 1:36: Wyclif qui, the Vulgate quae; DR used. Wis. 18:14–15: codd. Sap. VIII, corrected by Loserth; A contiret, A₁ B continerent. Wyclif departs in v. 15: Vulgate omnipotens sermo tuus de caelo a regalibus sedibus durus debellator in mediam exterminii terram prosilivit (DR "leaped down from heaven from thy royal throne, as a fierce conqueror"); his domine … venit is from the introit Dum medium silencium of the Sunday within the octave of Christmas (Sarum, Legg p. 34: omnipotens sermo tuus domine de celis a regalibus sedibus uenit); de celo is the Vulgate’s, exiliens Wyclif’s own.
  15. 15 Luke 2:7 (Loserth): there the child is laid in a manger "because there was no room for them in the inn". The inn "between two streets" and the two animals (not in Luke) are from tradition; we have not traced their sources. Opponere: to act as opponent in disputation; Luke 2:46, DR "sitting in the midst of the doctors, hearing them and asking them questions". Luke 22:27, DR "I am in the midst of you, as he that serveth"; John 19:18, DR "and Jesus in the midst". Stetit in medio is John 20:19 (and 26), not the last chapter. Matt. 18:20, paraphrased; DR "there am I in the midst of them". Abbas: the father of the community (cf. abba), who keeps the mean.
How the Latin of this chapter was established
  • Plate readings; page · reading · note):
    • 104: ecclesia (M is alinea letter)
    • 105: locutus
    • 105: invicem (print has invicem) [NW]
    • 106: III°
    • 106: III°
    • 107: illud (143a folio mark, N alinea)
    • 107: quia (143b folio mark)
    • 108: naturalis (natu-/ralis hyphenated; main token holds whole word)
    • 108: I°
    • 108: 15 (arabic 15 (verse number, Sap. XVIII° 14, 15))
    • 108: II°
    • 108: II°
    • 104: secundum (se- here, 142d cundum on p.105; main token holds whole word)
    • 104: Sed (print has Sed before adhuc; not in neighbours) [DELX]
    • 105: quantitatis obest, (two printed words; * between them is the folio mark, dropped) [-MARK]
  • OCR scars corrected in the Latin; plates for 104.5, 105.22): p. 104 c ipitulo; 105.22 discontinuac; p. 105 aha; 107.12 nec essitate. Doubts: 105 membrum eius; 107 inter patrem et filium. The stray .: after intercepta (104.22) is punctuation only.
  • 104.25 contitinuum: kept as printed (plate; n. 1).