Stoics and Saints - College of Stoic Philosophers

DEFENCE OF THE EIGHTS OF THE CROWN. 283
year of Ms reign!
l
Thq ideation
p.r>nn.pmprl tti p r^H of
the Crown to Jmpoiind~-a^lr~ftff^y:
fee airtiefiftl esigeaeies
English money jwhi r h w.a rlpmnp.cL by ? and on its wuy-to,
the Pope._and Wyclif, who Jhad_jL]Teadj jexplicitly maintained
the jight__of__the_. seiiular- government to
4^al -with~-Gtek*. and
with their property as subjects of the Grown. now_gives
his reply to the question of King and Parliament to the
effect that
our^ kingdom may lawfully keep back and
detain their treasure for the defence of itself, in what case
soever necessity do ...require. ihe_ same. The answer, which
extends to considerable length, is curious because of the
scholastic form of part of it, and the free Scriptural tone of
the rest. It indicates Wyclifs true place as the great
link of connection, intellect!] filly as wp]] as spiritually, be- ?
tween the scM astir ^g p a^rl thp a.orp, of the Pteformation.
culture and tone of thought
he is at once the last of
the great schoolmen and the first of the greater Reformers.
Not his terms only but the fnrrn of his arguments arestrongly___scliolasic,
while he mixes with them pointed and
vigorous appeals to the common understanding
and the
plain meaning of Scripture, which make him the pioneer
of the great intellectual movement which was about to
shake and to renew the world. As a specimen
of the
first it
may be interesting to quote the opening sentences
with their dry and formal argument,
which runs as follows :
Every natural body hath power given of God to resist against its
contrary, and to preserve itself in due estate, as philosophers know very
well. Insomuch, that bodies without life are endued with such kind of
power (as it is evident) unto whom hardness is given, to resist those
things that would break them, and coldness, to withstand the heat that
dissolveth them. Forasmuch then, as the kingdom of England (after the
manner and phrase of the Scriptures) ought to be one body, and the
clergy with the commonalty the members thereof, it seemeth that the
same kingdom hath such power given it of God and so much
;
the more
apparently, by how much the same body
is more precious unto God,
1
Printed in the Fasciculi Zizaniorum, Rolls Series, p. 258.