Page:John Wycliff, last of the schoolmen and first of the English reformers.djvu/389

 there. 4. The King and his realm are bound to overthrow those who betray the realm. 5. The Commons of the realm ought not to be burdened by unaccustomed taxes, until the patrimony which has been given to the clergy has been exhausted. 6. If any bishop or beneficed curate has notoriously fallen into contempt of God, the King not only may but is bound to take away his temporal goods [entrusted to him by the Church]. 7. The King ought not to set a bishop or a curate in any secular office. There is evidently not much in these propositions, unless it be in the fifth, which would make them particularly appropriate as coming from Wyclif at that crisis; and they had all been maintained, and in great measure admitted, by King, Parliament, and people, several years before. But the "Complainte" is a dignified and carefully considered paper, and might well have been presented to "our most noble and most worthi King Richard, kyng both of Englond and of Fraunce, and to the noble Duk of Lancastre, and to othere grete men of the rewme, bothe to seculers and men of holi Churche, that ben gaderid in the Parlement." The first point in this petition is that the rule of Christ is perfect and sufficient, without any other; that the clean religion of Christ was followed by the apostles, but it has been overlaid by monks and friars. If their rules agree with that of Christ, they should be known by Christ's name, not by that of Francis or Dominic. Therefore it is petitioned "that alle persones of what kynne privat sectis, or singuler religioun, maad of sinful men, may freely, withouten eny lettinge or bodily peyne, leve