John Wycliffe - Political Career

Political Career

John Wycliffe's entrance upon the stage of ecclesiastical politics is usually related to the question of feudal tribute to which England had been rendered liable by King John, which was not paid for thirty-three years until Pope Urban V in 1365 claimed it. Parliament declared that neither King John nor any other had the right to subject England to any foreign power. Should the pope attempt to enforce his claim by arms, he would be met with national resistance.

Pope Urban apparently recognised his mistake and dropped his claim. The tone of the pope was, in fact, not threatening, and he did not wish to draw England into the maelstrom of politics of Europe. Harsh words were bound to be heard in England, because of the close relations of the papacy with France. It is said that on this occasion Wycliffe served as theological counsel to the government, composed a polemical tract dealing with the tribute, and defended an unnamed monk over against the conduct of the government and parliament. This would place the entrance of Wycliffe into politics about 1365–66. Leonard's more important participation began with the peace congress at Bruges. There in 1374 negotiations were carried on between France and England, while at the same time commissioners from England dealt with papal delegates respecting the removal of ecclesiastical annoyances. Wycliffe was among these, under a decree dated 26 July 1374. The choice of a harsh opponent of the Avignon system would have broken up rather than furthered the peace negotiations. It seems he was designated purely as a theologian, and so considered himself, since a noted scriptural scholar was required alongside of those learned in civil and canon law. There was no need for a man of renown, or a pure advocate of state interests. His predecessor in a like case was John Owtred, a monk who formulated the statement that Saint Peter had united in his hands spiritual and temporal power – the opposite of what Wycliffe taught. In the days of the mission to Bruges Owtred still belonged to Wycliffe's circle of friends.

Wycliffe was still regarded by papal partisans as trustworthy; his opposition to the possessions of the Church may have escaped notice. It was difficult to recognise him as a heretic. The controversies in which men engaged at Oxford were philosophical rather than purely theological or ecclesiastical-political, and the method of discussion was academic and scholastic. The kind of men with whom Wycliffe dealt included the Carmelite monk John Kyningham over theological or ecclesiastical-political questions. Wycliffe's contest with Owtred and William Wynham (or Wyrinham or Binham) of Wallingford Priory and St Albans, the Benedictine professor of theology at Oxford, were formerly unknown, as were the earlier ones with William Wadeford. When it is recalled that it was once the task of Owtred to defend the political interests of England against the demands of Avignon, one would more likely see him in agreement with Wycliffe than in opposition. But Owtred believed it sinful to say that temporal power might deprive a priest, even an unrighteous one, of his temporalities; Wycliffe regarded it as a sin to incite the pope to excommunicate laymen who had deprived clergy of their temporalities, his dictum being that a man in a state of sin had no claim upon government.

Wycliffe blamed Wynham for making public controversies previously confined to the academic arena. But the controversies were fundamentally related to the opposition, which found expression in Parliament against the Curia. Wycliffe himself tells how he concluded that there was a great contrast between what the Church was and what it ought to be, and saw the necessity for reform. His ideas stress the perniciousness of the temporal rule of the clergy and its incompatibility with the teaching of Christ and the apostles, and make note of the tendencies evident in the measures of the "Good Parliament" of 1376-77. A long bill was introduced, with 150 headings, in which were stated the grievances caused by the aggressions of the Curia; all reservations and commissions were to be done away, the exportation of money was forbidden, and the foreign collectors were to be removed.