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The tenth of twelve treatises Wycliff wrote between 1374 and 1382, On Simony forms an integral part of his summa.
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Copyright 1992 by Fordham University All rights reserved LC 92-9844 ISBN 0-8232-1349-8
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Wycliffe, John, d. 1384. [De simonia. English] On simony/John Wyclif: translated by Terrence A. McVeigh. p. cm. Translation of: De simonia. Includes bibliographical references. ISBN 0-8232-1349-8 1. SimonyControversial literatureEarly works to 1800. I. McVeigh, Terrence A. II. Title. BV779.W9213 1992 241'.641dc20 92-9844 CIP
Printed in the United States of America
Page v
To my dear Wife, EILEEN
Page vii
Contents
Acknowledgments
ix
Introduction
1
I Wyclif's Definition of Simony
29
II Refutation of Objections to Definition
48
III Papal Simony
65
IV Simony in Papal Appointments
82
V Simony in Papal Reservation of First Fruits
98
VI Episcopal Simony
116
VII Monastic Simony
132
VIII Simony Among Rulers and Other Lay Persons
149
List of Works Cited
167
Index
173
The chapter titles listed here are the translator's descriptions of the chapter contents; no titles occur in the Latin original or in the text of this translation.
Page ix
Acknowledgments
I wish to thank the affiliates of the California State University Hayward Foundation for a small grant award to defray clerical expenses in completing this work. I would like to take this opportunity to acknowledge the valuable suggestions of Laurence Eldredge, founder of the New Wyclif Society, in the early stages of this project. I also wish to thank my sister, Mary Mackin, for her generous assistance in typing parts of the manuscript. I acknowledge with thanks the professional assistance of Kate Gross in preparing the index and Kathy Gundersen in proofreading. I should like, too, to express my gratitude to the Executive Editor at Fordham University Press, Dr. Mary Beatrice Schulte, for guiding my work through all the publication stages.
In my dedication, I offer a small token of my deep appreciation and gratitude for my wife's cheerful assistance in typing and proofreading the manuscript and for her unfailing support throughout the entire process of writing. I could not have completed this without her steadfast encouragement.
Page 1
Introduction
John Wyclif's treatise on simony, translated here for the first time into English from the Latin text, is the tenth book in a series of twelve that the English theologian and reformer composed between 1375 and 1382.1 The series was given the title of Summa theologiae in Hussite catalogues at the beginning of the fifteenth century,2 but there is no evidence in Wyclif's extant writings that he ever labeled these works a summa. In references to them, however, it is evident that he regarded these twelve books as part of a unified whole.3 It is also apparent from his remark in the second volume, On the Divine Precepts, that this treatise on simony was envisioned as an integral part of the series. Condemning simony as a form of theft in his discussion of the seventh commandment, Wyclif then promises his readers a longer treatment of the subject in which he will prove that all simoniacs are heretics.4
Although this tenth book of the summa has as its formal thesis that simony is heresy, it is, in reality, an extension and application of the theory on dominion that Wyclif proposed and developed in On Divine Dominion and On Civil Dominion.5 In this view, the institutional church can make no claim to temporal power or material possessions and, as will become clear in this introduction, this is the reason he can argue that most or all ecclesiastical officials are simoniacal. When he wrote this work on simony, Wyclif could assume that his readers were familiar with his teaching on dominion and also with his views on the Bible, the nature of the church, the papacy, and kingship, all of which were topics of fully devel-
Page 2
oped treatises in the summa. His habit of alluding to ideas and arguments expressed in his previously published writings can be disconcerting to a modern reader less familiar with them, and for this reason I have included in the notes to the translation references to other works in which he has explained an idea more fully, used an historical fact in a different context, or quoted a particular letter from a favorite writer. His basic assumptions on dominion, however, are so essential to an understanding of the position that he adopts toward simony that a more detailed explanation of his theory will be presented in this introduction.
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