Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 63.djvu/229

 demanded by Urban V in virtue of King John's feudal homage to Innocent III. This tract (printed by, Life of Wiclif, p. 349), which is styled ‘Determinatio quedam Magistri Johannis Wyclyff de Dominio contra unum monachum,’ is apparently only a part of an argument on the question whether the secular powers may lawfully deprive delinquent ecclesiastics of their temporalities, in the discussion of which his opponent had introduced the question of the tribute. Wycliffe declares that he will answer him by narrating the argument which he had heard used by some secular lords ‘in a certain council.’ Dr. Loserth (Engl. Hist. Rev. 1896, xi. 319) argues that this council cannot be the parliament of 1366, because the arguments used are too much like those embodied in Wycliffe's treatise ‘De Ecclesia,’ which he dates 1378, and represent too developed an anti-papal position for Wycliffe to have adopted in 1366. He accordingly refers the tract to 1376 or 1377, and the parliamentary episode to 1374, when the demand was renewed and a debate took place very much resembling that described by Wycliffe (Eulogium Historiarum, Continuatio, iii. 337). It is hardly proved that such a debate cannot have taken place or such arguments have been used by Wycliffe in 1366, and the debate itself may be much earlier than the book; but there is great probability in putting the parliamentary episode in 1374, and the tract not long afterwards. In either case only the germs of Wycliffe's characteristic doctrine of lordship can be traced in this tract. Upon the solution given to this question must depend the further question whether Wycliffe was already in the employment of the crown, and occupying some official position in connection with the session of parliament. He certainly took part in at least one later parliament, probably as one of the doctors of theology who were summoned to parliament in 1378 (Rot. Parl. iii. 37). In the ‘De Ecclesia’ (cap. xv. p. 354) he speaks of having been told by the bishop of Rochester in full parliament that his conclusions were condemned at Rome. This probably refers to the parliament of 1378, in which Wycliffe certainly played a prominent part (, Continuation, Engl. Hist. Soc. p. 234).

It must remain doubtful whether Wycliffe's first recorded appearance as a champion of the secular power against papal encroachments took place in 1366 or in 1374.

In the last-mentioned year (1374) Wycliffe, who had now taken the degree of doctor of theology, was sent to Bruges as an ambassador to treat with the papal delegates at Ghent about the non-observance of the statute of provisors and other pending disputes between the English government and the reigning pope, Gregory XI. His name stands second in the commission, next to the bishop of Bangor (, Fœdera, Record edit. III. ii. 1000, 1007). His allowance was 20s. a day, besides expenses (, Monograph, p. 175), and he was absent from 27 July to 14 Sept. (including the voyage). Adam of Murimuth (Engl. Hist. Soc. p. 215) tells us that in this conference the pope agreed to give up ‘reservations,’ and the king to give up conferring benefices by writ of quare impedit. But the only actual result of the conference was a batch of bulls (, l.c. pp. 1037–9) which related entirely to disputes about reservations already made by his predecessor, Urban V. There was to be a general cessation of hostilities, existing occupants of benefices being guaranteed peaceable possession of their benefices against ‘provided’ intruders, while the only stipulation for the future was that litigants should not be obliged to appear personally in the Roman court for three years or till the establishment of peace with France, while the English bishops were given powers to compel the repair of churches held by absentee cardinals. On the other hand, the king consented to obtain from parliament the repeal of the statute of provisors. The court, unlike the parliament, was not really in earnest about the matter, finding it easier to get its own share of the patronage and plunder of the English church by negotiations with the curia than by the compliance of chapters and the forced consent of the clergy. There is a certain irony in the fact that the main direct outcome of the affair was the translation of John Gilbert, bishop of Bangor, to the see of Hereford by papal provision. Wycliffe also appears to have had confirmed by the crown the prebend of Aust in the collegiate church of Westbury, to which he had already been ‘provided’ by the pope (but Shirley's reference to Rot. Pat. 49 Edw. III, pt. ii. m. 8, cannot be verified). There is no trace in the Worcester registers of his institution, and it appears to have been conferred on another shortly afterwards (ib. 49 Edw. III, pt. ii. m. 11). It is probable that Wycliffe objected to pluralities, while the prebend by itself was insufficient for his support. Dr. Loserth has called attention (introduction to Op. Evang. p. xxx) to the fact that Gregory XI provided Wycliffe with a prebend in Lincoln Cathedral, but it would appear that on his refusing or delaying to pay the first-fruits (facta sollicitudine ad colligendum sibi primos fructus xlv. librarum) the pope conferred it upon a