Abstract

Wyclif's Doctrine of Scripture, as presented in his De Veritate Sacrae Scripturae, stems from his conscious appropriation of Augustinian metaphysical realism in the British theological tradition of Robert Grosseteste; but it is also in continuity with other forms of later medieval sectarianism. ;The history of the scholarship is surveyed. Academic influences on Wyclif include Augustine, Anselm, Grosseteste, Aquinas, Duns Scotus, Ockham, Bradwardine, FitzRalph, Lyra, and Oxford nominalists. Significant social backgrounds include later medieval literalism and sectarianism; the Franciscans; FitzRalph; nationalism and social unrest in England; and the Free Spirit on the Continent. Against the background of curialists, conciliarists, national church movements, and radical sectarians, Wyclif passes through three successive phases: Catholic scholastic, national church, and radical sectarian. ;Wyclif's metaphysical approach to Scripture is that Scripture has five meanings, the most important of which are Christ and the divine ideas. His metaphysical doctrine is the basis for the infallibility and perspicuity of Scripture. ;Wyclif holds to the sufficiency of Scripture, or the "Scripture principle." He appreciates the role of reason and earlier tradition in interpreting Scripture, but is critical of later medieval tradition, so that in his middle phase he criticizes Catholic ecclesiology and sacramental theology. Wyclif's understanding of Scripture and history defers to allegorical interpretation but shows a persistent literalism. He parallels the Franciscans in understanding the state of innocence and the primitive church to reform the church of his day, even to the extent of adopting some of their apocalyptic ideas. Wyclif's christology shows the influence of the later medieval social theme of Christ's poverty and Augustinian-Scotist dyophysite themes, but his criticisms of the nominalists' speculative Nestorian tendencies lead him back to the Cyrillian christology of Thomas Aquinas. It is especially in Wyclif's late Trialogus that his doctrine of Scripture becomes more radical with his simplification of the metaphysical conception of Scripture, his accentuated literalism, and thoroughgoing criticisms of monasticism, tradition, and sacramental theology, which anticipate the views of the Protestant Reformation