Page:John Wycliff, last of the schoolmen and first of the English reformers.djvu/122

 It need not be concluded from the genealogy already quoted that Roger Wycliffe had no brother, and only one son. The later Wycliffes had numerous families, and that was probably enough the case with Robert and Roger. At any rate, there was a Robert de Wycliffe, clerk, ready to take the living in 1362; and when he died, a year later, William de Wycliffe of Balliol College was appointed by John de Wycliffe to succeed him. Who was this John de Wycliffe? Observe that Dame Catherine had nominated in 1362, possibly after consulting John; that John nominated in 1363, possibly consulting Dame Catherine; and that in 1369 there was admittedly a consultation between Catherine and John, resulting in their joint nomination of Henry Hugate. Who could this John de Wycliffe be except the eldest son of Roger and Catherine, legally the lord of the manor, but leaving some of (perhaps nearly all) the duties and privileges of the lordship to his mother? The varying exercise of this patronage, as shown in the close catalogue, would be adequately explained on the supposition that John de Wycliffe was the eldest son of Roger, himself lord of the manor, an absentee from his small estate, living on his earned income as a secular priest and an Oxford lecturer, and leaving the management of the Wycliffe property to his widowed mother. In brief, the circumstances would be well explained by assuming that John Wyclif, the Reformer, was the son and heir of Roger Wycliffe.

If we are to be satisfied with this explanation, and to adopt it as a trustworthy detail of biography, our