Page:John Wycliff, last of the schoolmen and first of the English reformers.djvu/378

 "4. If a bishop or a priest is in mortal sin, he does not ordain, consecrate, or baptize.

"5. If a man is in a fit condition of soul, external confession is superfluous and even invalid for him.

"6. There is no authority in the Gospel for declaring that Christ ordained the mass.

"7. God is constrained to give place to the devil.

"8. If the Pope is a reprobate and wicked man, and consequently a member of the devil, he has no power over Christ's faithful people assigned to him by anyone, unless it be by Caesar (that is, temporal).

"9. After Urban VI. no one else ought to be elected as Pope, but we ought to live in the manner of the Greeks, under our own laws.

"10. It is contrary to Holy Scripture for ecclesiastics to hold temporal possessions."

At the same time that he wrote to Peter Stokys, the Archbishop sent a letter to Chancellor Rygge, expressing his surprise at the favour which had been shown by him to Master Nicholas Hereford—who had just been appointed to preach before the University—exhorting him thenceforth to amend his ways, lest he should himself appear to be one of the heretical sect, and it should be "our duty thereon to exercise our authority against you." And the Chancellor is enjoined to assist Stokys in giving publicity to the Archbishop's denunciation.

Courtenay was grimly in earnest: but he had some trouble yet before he could make his will prevail. After receiving his letter, Dr. Rygge appointed Repyngdon, another Wycliffite, to preach before the University. It is evident that he was only