Page:Illustrations of the history of medieval thought and learning.djvu/279

Rh But dominion, as was stated at the outset, has another aspect to it ; e the theory of the community of dominion in itself involves its counterpart, the community of service, In this we find the only check recognised by Wycliffe, upon the action of kings : they have a responsibility, not we may infer from the tenour of his argument to the people over whom they rule, but to God from whom they derive their dominion, f They are his stewards, and lords only by virtue of service. God is the only lord whose dominion is unattended by this condition ; all other lords are servants not only of God but also of all their fellow-men, s The superscription of papal letters, servus servorum, acknowledges this truth in the most exalted of ecclesiastical potentates : it has the authority of the apostle who bade the Galatians, By love serve one another. We have seen the corollary of this principle; since all are lords and all servants one of another, then, all things, all that we call property, must belong in common to all. But if we are startled by the premature socialism of the thesis, we have to bear in mind that Wycliffe had yet to learn its effects in practical life, as displayed in the excesses of the rebels of 1381. Such application indeed was never in his mind ; nor did he ever pass a word which could be interpreted into approval of a violent assertion of those rights which notwithstanding he fully conceded. All things were all men s, but so long as the present state of polity subsisted it was unlawful to acquire them by force : for on the one hand the human constitution of society had the divine sanction, although it were imperfect by comparison with its eternal or evangelical ordering; and on the other hand force was incompatible with the primary dictates of the law of God.

Wycliffe’s communism is thus expressly limited to a condition of the world not present, but to be looked for and worked for : nor 1 only thus ; it is also limited to a field of possession other than that of human or temporal acquirement. Earthly loss is heavenly gain, and the care of earthly things is a barrier to our love of those