Page:John Wycliff, last of the schoolmen and first of the English reformers.djvu/270

 failide in werkes of mercy; and thus shulde we warne both o man and other how sum men shall be dampnyd more felly for raveyne, and sum shal be dampnyd more softly, for misusinge of Goddis goodis."

The frank courage of the writer is stamped on all his sermons, and it is easy to understand how the outcry would arise, even amongst the secular clergy, against himself and the men whom he sent forth to preach. For in the mildest of these discourses there is no respect of persons, and neither Pope nor prelate, priest nor monk, is spared when he neglects his office for his own gain or convenience. On the fourth Sunday after Trinity, the Gospel dealing with the mote and the beam, we have the following suggestion:

"Here may men see that sugettis shulden blame prelatis when they seen opynly greet defaultes in hem, as defaulte of Goddis lawe in keeping and teeching; for this is a beeme bi which the fende bindeth his hous, and thei shulden knowe thes as thei shulden fele the lore (loss) thereof."

Wyclif began to preach sermons in English in 1361, if not earlier, and it is possible that some of the discourses in "The Sunday Gospels" were prepared at Fillingham, or at Ludgarshall. Others smack more of controversy, and deal so roundly with the religious Orders in particular that a considerably later date must be assigned to them. Thus in the sermon for the sixteenth Sunday after Trinity there is a sharp touch for the Pope and the Orders.

"We shulden bewar of peril of ypocrisie, for many feynen hem in statis, and done reverse in her lyf,