Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 44.djvu/212

 4, inequality of rank among the clergy; 5, the lawfulness of papal and episcopal statutes; 6, the religious orders; 7, the invocation of saints and priestly intercession; 8, the rich adornments of churches; 9, the sacraments, especially that of the altar; 10, the taking of oaths; 11, the upholding of the lawfulness of war and capital punishment. The work is divided into five parts. In the first and most important part Pecock deals in general terms with the principles underlying the complaints against the clergy. He tries to confute in the first place the conclusion that an ordinance is not to be esteemed a law of God unless grounded on scripture. He argues, in anticipation of Hooker, that the moral law is in no true sense grounded on scripture, but rests upon the ‘doom,’ or judgment, of natural reason or ‘moral law of kind,’ which the scriptures presuppose and illustrate rather than declare or define. The sole function of the scriptures is to reveal supernatural truth which is beyond the reach of unaided human reason. The four remaining parts of the ‘Repressor’ deal with the various lollard positions; but of the eleven points advanced by them which Pecock had proposed to consider, he deals fully only with the first six; for a discussion of the last five he refers his readers to other of his works.

The ‘Repressor’ is a monument of fifteenth-century English, clear and even pointed in style, forcible in thought. The argument is logical and subtly critical, informed by wide, if not deep, learning. On the other hand, in the detailed application of his principles Pecock often fails to carry conviction, and his tendency to casuistry irritates the modern reader. He sets forth, however, the views of his opponents so clearly as to render his book an invaluable record of the theological opinions of his time.

Apparently next year (1456) Pecock issued his ‘Book of Faith,’ also in English, of which portions of the first part, together with the whole of the second, were printed by Wharton in 1688. Almost the entire work is extant in manuscript in Trinity College, Cambridge. The object of the book is ‘to win the lay children of the church into obedience’ by rational arguments. He renounces at the outset, for the purposes of argument at any rate, the claims of the church to infallibility, maintaining, however, that it is a man's duty to hold to the clergy so long as they are not proved to be actually in error. Faith itself, Pecock argues, is of two kinds: opinional, or resting on probability, and sciential, or resting on knowledge; and it is only to the former, as a rule, that the Christian attains in this life. The second part of the book treats of the rule of faith, and maintains that Scripture is itself the ultimate authority for the truths it contains, a view in which Pecock was not in advance of his age (Book of Faith, Pref. pp. xi seq. ed. 1688). The work clearly illustrates the limits within which Pecock confined his rational speculations. Where reason speaks with perfectly certain voice, that voice is to be obeyed, even in defiance of the church. But the absolute certainties of the reason are few, and, wherever reason hesitates, authority commands allegiance. He never admits that the church, though supposed fallible, can be proved to have actually erred in matters of faith, and ‘if thou canst not prove clearly and indubitably that the church erre … thou art in damnation for to hold against the church.’

In another work, the ‘Provoker’—which is not known to be extant—Pecock's scepticism took a more fatal direction. He denied that the apostles wrote the creed which goes by their name (, pp. 104, 209). He had already issued in the ‘Donet’ a revised creed omitting the article affirming Christ's descent into hell, and altering the wording of the clause concerning the holy catholic church (ib. p. 210; Repressor, pp. xx–i). Now, probably in a lost portion of the ‘Book of Faith,’ he included a new creed in English (ib. p. xliii).

By such writings Pecock alienated every section of theological opinion in England. His old patrons were either dead or disgraced, and his political opponents were in power. In 1456 he exasperated the Yorkist lords by hinting in a letter to Canning, mayor of London, at coming political disturbance. This was laid before the king and his advisers, and the knowledge of that fact apparently stimulated the activity of his theological enemies (, l. c. p. 213).

On 22 Oct. 1457 Archbishop Thomas Bourchier [q. v.] issued from Lambeth a citation, addressed to the clergy of Canterbury, calling Pecock's accusers to appear before him on 11 Nov. following. Pecock was ordered to then produce his books for examination. He refused to answer for any works issued by him more than three years ago, for those, he said, had only been privately circulated, and were without his final corrections (, p. 211). On 11 Nov. he produced copies of nine of his books, into which he is said to have introduced vital corrections. They were handed to a committee of twenty-four doctors. Pecock vainly claimed that he was entitled to be tried by a committee of his peers in scholastic disputation. He was