in fact, all the gifts of God. He takes literally the aphorism
which an ancient tradition inserted in the Book of Proverbs,
The faithful man hath the whole world of riches, but the
unfaithful hath not even a farthing ;[1] and he supports
it with much fulness and ingenuity of argumentation.
The first part of his thesis is indeed a legitimate following
out of the doctrine which saint Augustin had enforced,
of the negative character of evil. Sin, he said, is nothing,
and men, when they sin, become nothing: if then, argued
Wycliffe, sinners, as such, are nothing, it is evident that
they can possess nothing. Moreover possession presupposes a right or title to possess, and this right or title can only be held ultimately to depend upon the good
pleasure of God, who, it is evident, cannot be thought
to approve the lordship of the wicked or the manner in
which they abuse their power. Again, by the common
law it is not permitted to an inferior lord to alienate, in
particular to mortmain, any real property without the license
of his lord-in-chief, and any grant in contravention of his
will is unrighteous ; accordingly, inasmuch as God is the
lord-in-chief of all human beings, it should appear that any
grant made to a sinner must be contrary to his will, and
thus being unrighteous must be no possession in any strict
or proper sense of the word. But even granting that the
sinner have such possession, all human dominion, natural
or civil, is conferred upon him by God, as the prime author, in
consideration of his returning continually to God the service
due unto him ; but by the fact that a man by omission or com
mission becomes guilty of mortal sin, he defrauds his lord-in-
chief of the said service, and by consequence incurs forfeiture :
wherefore . . . he is rightfully to be deprived of all dominion
whatsoever. How then does the wicked man come to
have property in earthly things ? Wycliffe’s explanation turns upon the double meaning of the word church,
- ↑ It is found in the Septuagint version at the end of Prov. xvii. 6, in the Alexandrine manuscript after ver. 4 : ToO irurrov oAos 6 KO<J/J.OS TWV xpypaTuv, rov 5e airiffrov ovSe ofios. ycliffe knew the text from Augustin, Epist. cliii. 26, Opp, 2. 534 E, and Jerom, Epist. 1., Opp. 4 ("2) 575, in the Benedictine editions.
