Wyclif’s Latin works

De ecclesia, chapter 8, part 3

Augustine on the midwives; lying cannot defend the church’s privileges; what a privilege is

Loserth pp. 164.1–168.3

¶1164.1–166.15

164Unde in textu originalis beati Augustini inveni sic scriptum: ista non re, sed indole laudantur. Nec dubium quin sic habent libri correcti, tum quia magnus ille doctor Petrus Comestor intitulat capitulum suum De indole obstetricum, et sic loquitur sanctus Thomas secunda secunde q. CXª; tum secundo quia tunc textus Augustini diceret non in re, sed in dolo laudantur, nunc autem dicitur non re, sed indole laudantur; tum tercio quia dato hoc textu sic perverso adhuc militat in oppositum pervertentis, cum textus dicit quod non laudantur re. Certum est tamen quod in re fecerunt bonum opus de genere, quod fuisset virtuosum, si fuisset non infectum mendacio. Unde econtra est sentencia Augustini quod obstetrices laudantur in re vel opere, non autem in dolo quo regem mendaciter fefellerunt. Unde inveni in margine originalis beati Augustini sic scriptum: indolem vocat profectum; sicut enim est corporalis indoles corporaliter crescencium, sic est spiritualis indoles spiritualiter proficiencium. Vult ergo Augustinus dicere quod ista verba mendacia obstetricum non laudantur in re mendacii, sed in profectu vel fructu qui exinde provenit crescencie Hebreorum. Est ergo sentencia Augustini quod Deus non posset sinere peccatum fieri, nisi exinde bonum proveniat; unde propter bonum exinde occasionaliter proveniens vocatur peccatum Ade a beato Gregorio necessarium atque felix. Et dicitur a beato Augustino expediens; unde XIV°, De Civitate Dei, cap. XIII°, sic scribit: Audeo dicere superbis esse utile cadere in aliquod apertum manifestumque peccatum, unde sibi displiceant qui iam sibi placendo ceciderant. Salubrius enim 165Petrus sibi displicuit quando flevit quam sibi placuit quando presumpsit. Sed per se notum est theologis quod non exinde peccandum est, quod bonum ex gracia Dei exinde proveniat. Unde credo quod peccatum publicum doctorum quo manifeste approbant mendacium ut virtutem, et mendax allegacio originalium, ut mendacio pallient dictum suum, vertetur ex gracia Dei illis in commodum, dum tamen in isto se corrigant et recognoscentes defectum suum humiliter resipiscant. Quis rogo aliter caperet eos in testimonium vel allegacioni eorum crederet, dum dicerent quod privatum commodum meritorium sit mentiri; revera nescio que opinio redderet hominem plus infamem. Quantum ad secundam evidenciam quod propter salvanda privilegia ecclesie sicut in casu qui nuper contigit meritorium sit mentiri, manifestum est quod dogma illud inficiendo privilegia redderet procuratorem ecclesie nimis suspectum; cum enim omne privilegium vel libertas sit fundatum in veritate que est sponsus ecclesie, manifestum est quod professione veritatis et non mendacii veritati oppositi defenderetur, dicente eadem veritate Joh. VIII°, 31, 32: Si vos manseritis in sermone meo, vere discipuli mei eritis, et vos cognoscetis veritatem, et veritas liberabit vos. Ex quibus patet cum fide scripture quod, de quanto orator ecclesie declinat a sermone Dei qui est veritas in verba mendacii que sunt sermones diaboli, ut sic se ipsum inhabilitat ad privilegia et libertates ecclesie procurandum; nam nulla talia dantur nisi per sponsum ecclesie, veritatem que odit omne mendacium. Ideo dicit Joh. VIII°, 34: Omnis qui facit peccatum servus est peccati. Nec dubium quin omnis faciens mendacium ut sic peccat, ideo mendacium est pessimum medium ad procurandum bona ecclesie. Nam mentitor ut sic offendit in naturam divinam a qua 166omne bonum profluit sponse Christi, et ut sic offendit in totam ecclesiam, quia contra hoc mandatum domini: Non loqueris contra proximum tuum falsum testimonium, Exod. XX°, 16, iniuriatur ut sic sancte matri ecclesie: ideo absit ecclesiam expetere huiusmodi oratorem. Nam secundum Augustinum super Psalmum Vᵘᵐ: Si hoc dicitur quod est, verum dicitur, et ut sic ad eum qui est acceditur; si autem hoc dicitur quod non est, mendacium fit et a veritate receditur. Ideo dicit propheta: Perdes omnes qui loquuntur mendacium. Unde ne quis arbitretur perfectum et spiritualem hominem pro ista temporali vita in cuius morte non occiditur anima, sive sua sive alterius, debere mentiri, non inmerito in alio loco scriptum est: Os quod mentitur occidit animam.

Hence in the text of the original of blessed Augustine I found it written thus: "these are praised not for the thing but for the promise".1 Nor is there doubt that the corrected books have it so: first, because that great doctor Peter Comestor entitles his chapter "On the promise of the midwives", and so speaks Saint Thomas, Secunda secundae, question 110;2 secondly, because then the text of Augustine would say "they are praised not in the thing but in the guile", whereas in fact it says "they are praised not for the thing but for the promise"; thirdly, because, granted this text so perverted, it still tells against the one who perverts it, since the text says that they are not praised for the thing.3 Yet it is certain that in the thing they did a work good in its kind, which would have been virtuous had it not been infected with lying. Hence, on the contrary, the teachingsentencia: CONTEXTUAL: teaching / sentence of Augustine is that the midwives are praised in the thing or work, but not in the guile by which they deceived the king with a lie. Hence I found written in the margin of the original of blessed Augustine thus: "He calls 'promise' progress; for just as there is a bodily promise of those who grow bodily, so there is a spiritual promise of those who advance spiritually." Augustine, therefore, means to say that those lying words of the midwives are not praised in the thing of lying, but in the progress or fruit which came of it for the increase of the Hebrews.4 It is, therefore, the teaching of Augustine that God could not permit sin to be done unless good came of it; hence, because of the good that came of it by occasionoccasionaliter: by occasion, the sin of Adam is called by blessed Gregory necessary and happy. And it is called expedient by blessed Augustine; hence in De civitate Dei XIV, chapter 13, he writes thus: "I dare to say that it is useful for the proud to fall into some open and manifest sin, whereby they may be displeased with themselves, who had already fallen by pleasing themselves. For more wholesomely 165was Peter displeased with himself when he wept than pleased with himself when he presumed."5 But it is self-evident to theologians that one is not to sin on the ground that good comes of it by the grace of God. Hence I believe that the public sin of the doctors, by which they openly approve lying as a virtue, and the lying allegation of the originals, to cloak their saying with a lie, will by the grace of God be turned to their benefit, provided that they correct themselves in this and, acknowledging their defect, humbly come to their senses. Who, I ask, would otherwise take them as witnesses, or believe their allegation, while they said that to lie is a meritorious private advantage? Truly I do not know what opinionopinio: opinion would make a man more infamous.6 As to the second evidenceevidencia: evidence, that for the saving of the privileges of the church, as in the case which lately befell, it is meritorious to lie, it is manifest that that dogma, by infecting the privileges, would render the proctorprocurator; procuratrix: proctor of the churchecclesia: church all too suspect; for since every privilege or liberty is founded in the truth, which is the bridegroomsponsa / sponsus: bride / bridegroom of the church, it is manifest that it would be defended by the profession of truth, and not of the lie opposed to the truth, as the same truth says, John 8:31–32: "If you continue in my word, you shall be my disciples indeed. And you shall know the truth: and the truth shall make you free."7 From which it is clear, together with the faith of scripture, that in so far as an advocate of the church turns aside from the word of God, which is truth, to words of lying, which are the speeches of the devil, to that extent he makes himself unqualified for procuring the privileges and liberties of the church; for none such are given except through the bridegroom of the church, the truth, which hates every lie.8 Therefore he says, John 8:34: "Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin." Nor is there doubt that everyone who makes a lie sins as such; therefore lying is the worst means for procuring the goods of the church. For the liar as such offends against the divine nature, from which 166every good flows forth to the bride of Christ; and as such he offends against the whole church, because, against this commandment of the Lord, "Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour", Exodus 20:16, he as such wrongs holy mother church: therefore far be it that the church should seek out an advocate of this kind. For according to Augustine on Psalm 5: "If what is is said, the truth is said, and so one draws near to him who is; but if what is not is said, a lie is made, and one withdraws from the truth. Therefore the prophet says: Thou wilt destroy all that speak a lie. Hence, lest anyone should think that the perfect and spiritual man ought to lie for this temporal life, in whose death the soul is not slain, whether his own or another’s, not undeservedly is it written in another place: The mouth that belieth, killeth the soul."9

¶2166.16–168.3

166Ex quo patet quod pro tota universali ecclesia salvanda nullus sapiens mentiretur, nam cum omne mendacium sit peccatum contra naturam, eo quod tota natura fuit pure in veritate sine mendacio primitus instituta, quis procuraret pro bono ecclesie per verba mendacia? Nonne domini seculares audientes quod per dogma falsum, quia per mendacium, sit privilegium ecclesie defendendum, ex naturali lumine statim convincerent quod totum privilegium sit mendax et frivolum quod indiget sic fulciri mendaciis? Nonne iterum audientes doctorem ecclesie dogmatizare publice quod privilegia ecclesie sunt per mendacia inpetranda, suspicarentur probabiliter quod tota suggestio qua impetrantur bona ecclesie sit mendax et falsa, et per consequens, omnia illa bona forent ex defectu fundamenti stabilis auferenda? Nonne tercio credens ecclesiam sic privilegiatam 167approbare mendacia diffideret quod ecclesia illa recipiens ex titulo elemosine a seculari principe bona huiusmodi sub condicione quod rependat spirituale suffragium, mentiretur in defraudando a promisso suffragio. Ideo ista opinio foret pessima ad bona ecclesie fideliter procurandum. Et eadem est consideracio de causis civilibus, quod inpossibile est ut mendacia illas vel contenciones aliquas legitime promoverent. Consideremus ergo quod Christus incurrebat aput sacerdotes, phariseos et scribas apparenciam diffamacionis, maxime ex hoc quod detegendo veritatem et reprobando eorum vicia purgavit ecclesiam et ut sic aquisivit sibi nomen quod est super omne nomen, superans quamlibet famam mundi. Sic nos christiani debemus tenere veritatem et privilegia ecclesie Christi defendere quantum sufficimus nec curare de fama alia, nisi de quanto adicitur ex virtute. Sed tercio notandum pro ulteriori declaracione privilegiorum ecclesie quod privilegium est privata lex, concessa a principe ad commodum ecclesie vel persone. Unde (si non fallor) omnis bona lex temporalis vel humanitus adinventa pro utilitate ecclesie vocari potest privilegium ecclesie, cum omnis talis lex sit privata quoad tempus et populum. Unde quod legiste vocant talia iura communia non obest quin sint privata, quia in communitate legum est dare quotlibet gradus, et lex privata potest crescere in communitate quoad tempus, locum et personam. Lex autem caritatis quam omnis homo debet semper et ubique tenere est ius communissimum sicut alie leges condicionales quas ipsa implicat. Addo eciam distinccionem ecclesie vel persone, quia si tantum esset una creatura racionalis privilegiata, tunc non privilegiaretur ecclesia. Privilegium ergo est specialis licencia 168creature utendi utibili vel fruendi fruibili, et illud speciale vel privatum licere est lex, ut patet in communi sermone de lege.

From which it is clear that to save the whole universal church no wise man would lie; for since every lie is a sin against nature, because the whole of nature was at first instituted purely in truth without a lie, who would procure the good of the church by lying words? Would not the secular lords, hearing that a privilege of the church is to be defended by a false dogma, because by a lie, at once establish by the natural light that the whole privilege that needs to be propped up thus with lies is lying and frivolous?10 Would they not, again, hearing a doctor of the church dogmatize publicly that the privileges of the church are to be obtained by lies, suspect with probability that the whole suggestion by which the goods of the church are obtained is lying and false, and consequently that all those goods are to be taken away for want of a stable foundation? Would not, thirdly, one who believed that the church so privileged 167approves lies lose confidence, [fearing] that that church, receiving goods of this kind by titletitulus: title of almselemosina: alms from a secular prince on condition that it repay a spiritual suffragesuffragia: suffrages, would lie in defrauding [him] of the promised suffrage?11 Therefore this [opinion] would be the worst for faithfully procuring the goods of the church. And the same is the consideration of civil causes: it is impossible that lies should lawfully promote them, or any contentions. Let us consider, then, that Christ incurred among the priests, Pharisees and scribes the appearance of disrepute, chiefly from this, that by exposingdetegere: to expose the truth and reproving their vices he purged the church, and as such acquired for himself the name which is above all names, surpassing every fame of the world.12 So we Christians ought to hold the truth and defend the privileges of the church of Christ as far as we are able, and not care for other fame, except in so far as it is added from virtue. But, thirdly, it is to be noted, for the further declaration of the privileges of the church, that a privilege is a private law granted by a prince for the benefit of the church or of a person.13 Hence (if I am not mistaken) every good temporal law, or [law] humanly devised for the profit of the church, can be called a privilege of the church, since every such law is private as to time and people. Hence that the legists call such lawsius: right / law common does not prevent their being private, because in the commonness of laws there are as many degrees as you please, and a private law can grow in commonness as to time, place and person.14 But the law of charitycaritas: charity, which every man ought always and everywhere to keep, is the most common law, as are the other conditional laws which it implies. I add also the distinction "of the church or of a person", because if only one rational creature were privileged, then the church would not be privileged. A privilege, therefore, is a special licence 168for a creature to use what is usable or to enjoy what is enjoyable; and that special or private being-allowed is law, as is clear in common speech about law.15

Notes

  1. 1 Augustine, Enarr. in Ps. 5 (Loserth, "ut supra", 164.2); cf. 08-b, n. 10. Originale: the Father’s own work, as against a florilegium or a citation. Indoles: native quality, the promise of growth, as the margin gloss below explains; rendered "promise" throughout.
  2. 2 Comestor’s heading: Loserth reports that in Comestor one reads de dolo, not de indole (08-b, n. 12). Thomas Aquinas, Summa theologiae II-II q. 110 (Loserth: Opp., Venice 1774, tom. IV); the article, and whether Thomas reads indole, are not independently checked.
  3. 3 B lacks nunc — laudantur (164.8–9). Militat in oppositum pervertentis: tells against the one who perverted it, since even the perverted text denies that they are praised "in the thing".
  4. 4 The margin gloss in Wyclif’s copy of Augustine is not identified; not traced. Profectus: progress, growth. Side-note 164.21.
  5. 5 Gregory: the words "necessary" and "happy" of Adam’s sin are the Easter Exsultet, O certe necessarium Ade peccatum … O felix culpa (Sarum, Legg p. 117), which Wyclif regularly ascribes to Gregory (so De civili dominio III, De dominio divino); it is not in the Gregorian sacramentary as printed (PL 78). Augustine’s "expedient": De civ. Dei XIV.13 says utile (PL 41:422, superbis esse utile cadere); expediens is Wyclif’s word. De civ. Dei XIV.13 (Loserth: Opp. VII, p. 366 A). A margin Nota Augustinum, quod utile est in casu peccare (164.30).
  6. 6 A margin Conclusio (165.4). A₁ adds propter before privatum (165.11–12), "that for private advantage it is meritorious to lie"; A₁ alone does not outweigh the print, which is translated. Mendax allegacio originalium: the lying citation of the Fathers’ works. Resipiscant: come to their senses, repent.
  7. 7 John 8:31–32 DR; Wyclif’s et vos cognoscetis adds vos, not rendered. Procurator: the church’s proctor, its agent in suing for privileges (side-note 165.14, "her advocates").
  8. 8 Orator ecclesie (also 166.4): here the church’s advocate or spokesman, who sues for her privileges, as Loserth’s side-note has it; the glossary oratores, "bedesmen", does not fit this sense, and the term is left untagged. De quanto … ut sic: in so far as …, to that extent.
  9. 9 A margin Augustinus (166.6). Augustine, Enarr. in Ps. 5 (Loserth 166.7). Loserth gives Augustine’s words as Si enim hoc dicitur quod est, verum dicitur; si autem hoc dicitur quod non est, mendacium est; Wyclif’s "and so one draws near to him who is" and "and one withdraws from the truth" are not in Loserth’s quotation; the full source wording is not independently checked. Ps. 5:7 DR; Wis. 1:11 DR "the mouth that belieth, killeth the soul" (Loserth 166.16); Exod. 20:16 DR.
  10. 10 B ex natura lumine (166.23). B convinceret; Loserth’s apparatus judges convincerentur, "would they not be convinced", the better reading (166.23), but he prints convincerent, which is translated, "establish". Side-note 166.20.
  11. 11 Diffideret quod … mentiretur: the construction is loose; we take it as "would lose confidence [in the church], fearing that it would lie". Ex titulo elemosine: by title of alms, the endowment received as alms and repaid with suffrages.
  12. 12 Phil. 2:9 DR "a name which is above all names". Side-note 167.9.
  13. 13 A₁ Sed ulterius for Sed tercio (167.18); the print is translated. "Thirdly": the third of the suppositions announced at 158.1 (08-a). A margin Quid est privilegium? (167.19). The definition recalls the etymology of privilegium as a private law (Isidore, Etym. V.18, taken into Gratian, Decretum D.3 c.3).
  14. 14 A margin Omnis lex humanitus adinventa utilis est privilegium (167.22). A₁ iuriste for legiste (167.25). Ius here is law, a body of law, not a right (the glossary).
  15. 15 The codices read distinctim; Loserth prints distinccionem (167.32), translated. The codices read usibili; Loserth prints utibili (168.1), translated; B et fruendi for vel fruendi. Utendi … fruendi: the pair "use" and "enjoy" is Augustine’s uti / frui (De doctr. chr. I.3–4, PL 34:20). Licere: the infinitive used as a noun, "being-allowed".
How the Latin of this chapter was established
  • Plate readings; page · reading · note):
    • 164: profectu (leaf zoom: tall hooked f, not t)
    • 165: Petrus (151c is the folio mark)
    • 165: privilegia
    • 165: in
    • 166: Christi
    • 166: 16
    • 166: Vᵘᵐ (superscript um after V (Psalmum Vᵘᵐ))
    • 166: per (round p)
    • 166: privilegiatam (main token holds the whole word privi-/legiatam; glued 3 is the bold argument numeral)
    • 167: suffragio (5 is the line number) [NW]
    • 167: Christus
    • 167: Christi
    • 167: legiste (print spelling) [NW]
    • 168: creature
    • 164: textu
    • 164: beati
    • 164: inveni (v as printed)
    • 164: sic (151b folio mark and alinea E glued)