Page:John Wycliff, last of the schoolmen and first of the English reformers.djvu/310

 with this subject, fell in 1381 on April 14th; and the Confession which was written by Wyclif after the inquiry had been held bears the date of May 10th. Perhaps the four weeks between these dates leaves time for all that is recorded as having happened. The inquiry itself was very much in the nature of a foregone conclusion. The issue of the condemnation under the Chancellor's seal, its promulgation in Wyclif's presence, the appeal to John of Gaunt and his response, with the writing of Wyclif's rejoinder, may certainly have happened within a month, and are scarcely likely to have been dragged out over thirteen months.

The articles attributed to Wyclif, for which the Chancellor called him to account, were these:

1. The consecrated host which we see upon the altar is not Christ, nor any part of him, but an efficacious prefigurement of him.

2. No partaker can see Christ in the consecrated host with his physical eyesight, though he may do so with the eye of faith.

3. The faith of the Roman Church was expressed of old in the declaration of Berengarius, that the bread and wine which remain after the benediction are the consecrated host.

4. By virtue of the sacramental words, the eucharist contains the body and blood of Christ in a true and real sense, down to the minutest particular.

5. Transubstantiation, identification, and impanation—terms which have been given to the eucharistic symbols—have no foundation in Scripture.