Page:John Wycliff, last of the schoolmen and first of the English reformers.djvu/278

 The writings of Wyclif have undergone a fate which somewhat curiously recalls the history of Aristotle's works after his death. Circumstances conspired to bury the Metaphysics and Politics, and perhaps other writings of Aristotle, in oblivion. After more than two centuries they were re-discovered, brought by Apellicon from the Troad to Athens, and carried thence by Sulla to Rome. Then they disappeared again, and for many centuries the philosophy of the Stagyrite was preserved for Europe by the scholars of Syria, Arabia, and other Mahomedan lands. Moreover the earlier disciples of Aristotle wrote Aristotelian discourses on a variety of subjects, some of which have been or may yet be accepted as genuine works of the master, though it would be idle to expect unanimity of opinion amongst scholars in every particular case.

Most of what has been said of Wyclif's English writings will apply equally well to his Latin works. The canon is undetermined, and perhaps, so far as the minor tracts are concerned, it could never be definitely established. As for the philosophical treatise De Esse, the De Compositione Hominis, the De Dominio Divino, De Civili Dominio, and De Ecclesia, the Trialogus, the De Veritate Sanctae Scripturae, and a few more, in which we find autobiographical details, or on which controversies arose in his life-time, there is no room for question; but in other cases it is clear that Latin writings have been attributed to Wyclif about the authenticity of which it is impossible not to entertain a doubt.

Amongst the English works which have been