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John Wyclif and the Cult of the Eucharist

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 February 2016

J. I. Catto
J. I. Catto*
Affiliation:
Oriel College, Oxford
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Extract

The storm centre of John Wyclif’s quarrel with the Church was his doctrine of the Eucharist. The critic of clerical dominion over secular things and of the authority of the pope had passed through ecclesiastical censure almost unscathed; but the proponent of a revisionist theology of the eucharistic sacrament would at once lose the countenance of academic colleagues and public opinion alike, and would suffer the consequences. The crisis of Wyclif’s career came with striking rapidity after he broadcast, in his Confessio or public statement in the Oxford schools on 10 May 1381, his opinion that the presence of the Body of Christ in the Eucharist was figurative, ‘sacramental’, or in some sense, to anyone not acquainted with the terms of his own mental world, less than real.

Type
Research Article
Information
Studies in Church History Subsidia , Volume 4: The Bible in the Medieval World , 1985 , pp. 269 - 286
Copyright
Copyright © Ecclesiastical History Society 1985 

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References

1 Thomson, S. Harrison, ‘The Philosophical Basis of Wyclif’s Theology’, Journal of Religion, xi (1931), pp. 86–116CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Leff, G., Heresy in the Later Middle Ages (Manchester, 1967), ii, pp. 494–558Google Scholar, and ‘John Wyclif: the Path to Dissent’, PBA, lii (1966), pp. 143-80. A more rounded view of Wyclif’s philosophy is presented by Robson, J.A., Wyclif and the Oxford Schools (Cambridge, 1961)Google Scholar; see especially on his eucharistic doctrine, pp. 190-5, 218-21. But for an alternative approach see Smalley, Postilla; ‘Wyclif’s Postilla on the Old Testament and his Principium’, Oxford Studies presented to Daniel Callus = OHS, ns, xvi (Oxford, 1964), pp. 253-96; ‘The Bible and Eternity; John Wyclif’s Dilemma’, JWCI, xxvii (1964), pp. 73-89, reprinted in Studies, pp. 399-415.

2 Bossy, J., ‘The Mass as a Social Institution’, PP, c (1983), pp. 29–61Google Scholar; James, M., ‘Ritual, Drama and Social Body in the Late Mediaeval English Town’, ibid., xcviii (1983). pp. 3–29.Google Scholar

3 William Woodford, De Sacramento Altaris Quaestiones LXXII, qu. 63, Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Bodl. 703, f. 162r.

4 FZ, p. 114.

5 De Sacramento Altaris, qu. 50, veritates 13 and 17, Oxford, Bodleian, MS Bodl. 703, ff. 161v-62r and 162v-63r, printed Robson, Wyclif, pp. 192 n. 2 and 193 n. 1.

6 Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae, pars iii, qu. 77, art. ii: Sancti Thomae Aquinalis Opera Omnia, ed. Leonina (Rome, 1882 ff.), xii, pp. 196-7, and cf. Aristotle, Metaphysics, M. 8 (1083a); Wyclif, De Benedicta Incarnacione, ed. E. Harris, WS (1906), p. 190.

7 Scotus, Opus Oxoniense, lib. IV, dist. xii, qu. 2; Joannis Duns Scoti Opera Omnia (Lyons, 1639) viii, pp. 728-38.

8 Ockham, De Corpore Christi (Venice, 1504), ch. 21, f. 137v; see G.N. Buescher, The Eucharistic Theology of William Ockham (Washington, 1950), pp. 123-30.

9 Leff, Heresy, pp.. 550, 616 n. 2, and ‘John Wyclif’, p. 176; Robson, Wyclif, p. 195.

10 FZ, p. 117.

11 Wyclif, Sermones, ed. J. Loserth, 4 vols, WS (1887), iv, p. 352. The sermon was evidently preached at Easter, 18 April 1378: see Mallard, W., ‘Dating the Sermones Quadraginta of John Wyclif’, Mediaevatia et Humanistica, xvii (1966), p. 105.Google Scholar

12 McEvoy, J., The Philosophy of Robert Grosseteste (Oxford, 1982), pp. 151–8.Google Scholar

13 Robson, Wyclif, p. 28.

14 Wyclif, De Blasphemia, ed. M.H. Dziewicki, WS (1893), p. 27.

15 Wyclif, De Eucharistia, ed. J. Loserth, WS (1892), pp. 53-4; cf. De Apostasia, ed. M.H. Dziewicki, WS (1889), p. 146. See Leff, Heresy, ii, p. 553; Robson, Wyclif, p. 189.

16 Opus Evangelicum, ed. J. Loserth, WS (1895-6), ii, pp. 106-9.

17 De Eucharistia, p. 183.

18 De Eucharistia, pp. 13-14.

19 William Durandus, Rationale Divinorum (Naples, 1859 and many other editions); Woodford, De Sacramento Altaris Quaestiones LXXII, Bodl. 703, ff. 102r-83v.

20 Bossy, ‘The Mass’, pp. 51-2.

21 Mattei, S., ‘La Custodia Eucaristia’ in Eucaristica, ed. Piolanti, A. (Rome, 1957), pp. 898–9.Google Scholar

22 Bossy, ‘The Mass’, p. 53.

23 James, ‘Ritual, Drama and Social Body’, pp. 6-10.

24 The most extensive collection of eucharistic miracles is that of Caesarius Heister-bacensis, Dialogus Miraculorum (Cologne, 1851), ii, pp. 167-217. In general, see Browe, P., Die Eucharistische Wunder des Mittelalters (Breslau, 1938).Google Scholar

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26 Browe, Eucharistische Wunder, pp. 93-100.

27 Dumoutet, E., Le desir de voir le hostie (Paris, 1926)Google Scholar; Browe, P., Die Verehrung der Eucharistie im Mittelalter, 2nd ed. (Freiburg im Breisgau, 1967), pp. 26–48.Google Scholar

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29 Above, n. 24.

30 John of Marienwerder, Septililium Bealae Dorotheae, ed. F. Hipler, AB, ii (1883), pp. 381-472; iii (1884), p. 113-40, 408-48; iv (1885), pp. 207-51; cf. iii, pp. 409-10.

31 Caesarius Heisterbacensis, Dialogus, ii, pp. 172-3.

32 Brooke, C.N.L., ‘Religious Sentiment and Church Design of the Later Middle Ages’, BJRL, 1 (1967-8), pp. 13–33.Google Scholar

33 Guibert of Nogent, De Pignoribus Sanctorum, lib. i, ch. 2, PL clvi, 616.

34 James, ‘Ritual, Drama and Social Body’, p. 5. On the tradition of adventus and its religious applications, see Brown, P., The Cult of the Saints (London, 1981), pp. 98–100.Google Scholar

35 AS, Aprilis, i, p. 447.

36 Ibid., p. 459.

37 Browe, Verehrung, pp. 72, 76-80; F. Callay, ‘Origine e sviluppo della festa del Corpus Domini’ in Eucaristia, ed. Piolanti, pp. 907-32.

38 James, ‘Ritual, Drama and Social Body’, pp. 5-6.

39 Book of Margery Kempe, ed. S.B. Meech, EETS (London, 1940), p. 163.

40 De Eucharistia, pp. 158-70; cf. pp. 158, 169.

41 Ibid., pp. 164-9, from Gregory, XL Homiliarum in Evangelia Lib. ii, Homilia xxii, PL lxxvi, 1178-81.

42 Bossy, ‘The Mass’, p. 59.

43 Leff, Heresy, ii, p. 657; Spinka, M., John Hus (Princeton, 1968), pp. 68–9.Google Scholar

44 De Sanguine Christi, ed. V. Flajšhans in Magistri Joannis Hus Opera Omnia, i, fasc. iii (Prague, 1904), cf. pp. 32-7. On Wilsnack see now Boockmann, H., ‘Der Streit um das Wilsnacker Blut. Zur Situation des deutschen Klerus in der Mitte des 15. Jahrhunderts’, Zeitschrift für historische Forschung, ix (1982), pp. 385–408.Google Scholar

45 On Janov see Kybal, V., M. Matěj z Janova (Prague, 1905)Google Scholar; Leff, Heresy, ii, pp. 612-19. Valasek, E., Das Kirchenverständnis des Prager Magisters Matthias von Janow (1350/55-1393)- Ein Beitrag zur Geistesgeschichte Böhmens im 14. Jahrhundert = Lateranum, ns, xxxvii (Rome, 1971)Google Scholar is a useful summary of modern research, although not particularly original.

46 Matthew of Janov, Regulae Veteris et Novi Testamenti, ed. V. Kybal and O Odlozilik (Innsbruck and Prague, 1908-26), i, pp. 45-9.

47 Regulae, v. pp. 303-4; see Browe, P., Die häufige Kommunion im Mittelalter (Munster, 1938), pp. 33–5.Google Scholar

48 See also Regulae, v, p. 184.

49 Regulae, i, p. 53.

50 Regulae, ii, pp. 75-107.

51 AS, Aprilis, iii, pp. 931-2.

52 Septililium, AB, iii (1884), pp. 410-11.

53 Browe, Häufige Kommunion, pp. 109-10.

54 Imilatio Christi iv, p. 3, trans. L. Sherley-Price (London, 1952), p. 189.

55 Concilium Tridentinum, sessio xiii, ch 8, Mansi, 2nd ed., xxxiii, cols. 83-4.

56 FZ, p. 114.

57 Uhtred of Boldon, De Eucharistia, Durham Cathedral Library, MS B.IV.34, f. Ir.

58 Augustiniani cuiusdam tractatus contra errores Mathiae de Ianov, ed. J. Sedlák, in Mistr. Jan Hus (Prague, 1915), pp. 21*-44*, esp. p. 35*. See also Valasek, Matthias von Janow, p. 91.