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Wyclif devoted many years of his life to the intensive study of Scripture, beginning formally with exegetical lectures that survive as a sequence of postils (probably written between 1371 and 1376), now collectively known as Postils on the Whole of the Bible , a unique and extensive commentary that won Wyclif considerable respect as an exegete. 1 In these, we witness his meticulous defence of the authority of scripture, and of the literal veracity of all of its parts. This is developed further in On the Truth of Holy Scripture (1377
drama: first, under what Vincent Gillespie has called the ‘long shadow’ cast by Archbishop Arundel's Constitutions (1409), which placed strict limits on vernacular translations of scripture; secondly, in response to the various phases of the English Reformation, in the light of the onus that Reformers placed both on the Bible – rather than the Church – as the source of religious authority, and on worship in the vernacular, not (as previously) in Latin. 3 ‘Moralities’ have been selected for this study because they are
kind of relief, they should not receive temporal reward in exchange. But, according to the word of the Lord ‘Freely you received, freely give’ [Matthew 10:8] they must give generously what they have received by the grace of God to those around them, that is what they were given freely – freely indeed meaning without awaiting temporal counterpart. 16 From a human experience that provides an exemplum , and from a saying from the Scriptures, Hincmar generalises: this is the most common homiletical method. The originality of the Vita Remigii
perspective and ideology, these references to authorities are crucial, especially in a time when hagiography had not yet become established as a genre for authorial self-fashioning. For this, we have to wait until the mid fifteenth century for professional hagiographer-poets such as John Lydgate, Osbern Bokenham, and, to some degree, John Capgrave. References to ecclesiastical writers, but also to passages from Scripture and Latin compilations of saints’ lives such as the Putting the saint in perspective 143 Legenda aurea are typical of medieval texts that seek to
particular theological questions through a study of scripture and patristic authorities, and then episcopal synods under royal direction ruled on doctrine. 38 Ninth-century bishops had grown particularly keen to prevent anyone from usurping their role as arbiters of the faith, and since Gottschalk was neither a bishop nor a royal adviser on doctrinal matters his preaching had occurred without sanction. 39 His condemnation at the Council of Mainz, on the other hand, had been the result of this very canonical process. Archbishop Amolo of Lyons, one of Gottschalk
What it demonstrates, however, is that John viewed the residual heritage of ancient Rome instrumentally, seeking whatever moral lessons it could offer. In the context of the opening passages of the Policraticus , the message the Arch conveys is that a good ruler must rule by promoting peace. The Arch preserves Constantine’s memory in the same fashion as Scripture preserves the lives of the apostles and prophets – as exempla worthy of emulation. In Policraticus , Book II. 15, John also uses the remnants of antiquity as a source for a
saint that brings about the healing effect. Where God’s sensory contact with humanity is mediated by Jesus in the New Testament, it is mediated by Cuthbert in Northumbria, who takes on the healing role of Christ within his own specific milieu. In her discussion 145 Assembling and reshaping Christianity 145 of body and voice in the Judaeo- Christian scriptures, Elaine Scarry points out that in the Hebrew scriptures the powerful God does not have the power of self-substantiation and therefore the wounded human body becomes the confirmation of God’s ‘realness’. Man
were subjected to critical questioning and argued over indecorously in the street amidst vagabonds and pimps; in fact he railed against these young students being in Paris at all, a lurid Babylon that could only distract and corrupt them. The place for them, he declared, was really Jerusalem, the heavenly city, by which he meant a monastery like his, set in the quiet countryside, where they could read sacred scripture respectfully and ruminate upon it prayerfully, all the while learning from their ‘books’ – that is, the trees and rocks and watercourses. 19 What is
our Lord God and do freely what he orders and do not do what he prohibits if we act in this way we do not sin. Question Why are we troubled? Answer Because we do not wait on God. For if we busy ourselves for Him we are made remote from all trouble. Question How can we be at rest? Answer If we always contemplate divine scripture and drive away temporal cares. Question I love strife. Answer Because you
, penitential romance, sacred romance, edifying romance, or secular scripture, equivalent terms for saints’ legends that make heavy use of romance elements are scarce.68 Only the term ‘secular hagiography’ suggests that romances usually classified as hagiographic in nature bear a closer resemblance to the genre of hagiography than to that of romance.69 Jocelyn Wogan-Browne has rightly criticised this treatment of saints’ lives, which gives preference to romances and takes them to be normative for genre development and transgressions: ‘Saints’ lives are thus something like