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Secular princes govern their subjects directly and immediately in reference to the body and temporal goods, but only mediately, or in the second line (accessorie) in relation to the soul, which latter interest, however, in the order of the two objects or ends of government, should be the first. On the other hand, the priests of Christ exercise government chiefly and directly in relation to spiritual gifts, e.g., the virtues; yet along with this, and in the second line, in relation to temporal things. But both jurisdictions must take hold of each other and render each other reciprocal support. As the Church has two estates, clergy and laity—so to say soul and body-so she has two sorts of censure and discipline-spiritual, in the shape of admonition; corporeal, in the shape of compulsion; of which the former takes effect by the preaching of the law of Christ and conviction of reason, and belongs to the doctors and priests of Christ, while the latter takes effect by the deprivation of the gifts of nature and temporal goods, and is exercised in the hands of the laity. De Civili Dominio, II., 8, MS. 1341, fol. 178, col. 1 ; fol. 179, col. 1.

363. De Civili Dominio, II., 16, MS. 1341, fol. 235, col. 2: Tunc necessitaretur republica redire ad politiam evangelicam, habens omnia in communi.

364. Saints' Day Sermons, No. XXXI., MS. 3928, fol. 65, col. 2: Viri quidem evangelici debent in voluntate et in conversatione tanquam vir unus concurrere, quanquam loco distiterint (MS., destituerint), et legem Christi sibi praesentis constanter defendere. Doctores evangelici. De Civili Dominio, III., 19, MS. 1340, fol. 163, col. 1.

365. Supplementum Trialogi, c. 8, p. 447: Tunc foret facilius . . . errores corrigere, et statum ecclesiae ad ordinationem Christi pure secundum legem suam reducere, quod attendere desidero. Comp. Dialogus, c. 18: Intendimus purgationem et perfectionem cleri, quam scimus non stare in multitudine personarum, sed in observantia status, quem Christus instituit.

366. Hoc tentans pro parte Christi habebit plurimos adversantes, quia non solum antichristum et omnes ejus discipulos, sed ipsum diabolum et omnes suos angelos, qui summe odiunt, quod Christi ordinatio stet in terris: Saints' Day Sermors, No. III., MS. 3928, fol. 6, col. 1.

367. De Apostasia, c. 2, MS. 1343, fol. 52, col. 1: Confido de bonis sociis, qui mihi confidenter in causa Dei astiterant, quod. usque in finem assistent, quia nihil illis et dictis apostatis.

...

368. De Veritate 8. Scripturae, c. 23, MS. 1294, fol. 78, col. 1: O si Deus dederit mihi cor docile, perseverantem constantiam et caritatem ad Christum, ad ejus ecclesiam et ad membra diaboli ecclesiam Christi laniantia, ut pura caritate ips corripiam! Quam gloriosa causa foret mihi praesentem miseriam finiendi! Hae enim fuit causa martyrii Christi. Comp. the beautiful conclusion of the II. Book De Civili Dominio, c. 18, MS. 1341, fol. 251, col. 2: Concedat Deus nobis clericis arma apostolorum et patientiam martyrum, ut possimus in bono (the evil with good) vincere adversarios crucis Christi! Amen.

369. Trialogus, IV., 4, p. 258. Comp. Dialogus, c. 25, MS. 1387, fol. 156, col. 1 : Dicam ergo istam sententiam pro bono papae atque ecclesiae, et si occisio vel alia

poena inde eveniat, rogo Deum meum dare virtutem ad constanter et humiliter patiendum.

370. De Blasphemia, c. 1, MS. 3933, fol. 119, col. 1: Verum potens est Deus illuminare et excitare mentes paucorum fidelium, qui constanter detegant et moneant, si digni sumus, ad destructionem hujus versutiae antichristi. Sic enim incipiendo a femina convertit per paucos apostolos totum mundum.

371. Ib. (one of Wicliff's latest writings), c. 1, MS. 3933, fol. 120, col. 4: Ideo videtur tutius a generatione ista saltem in mente aufugere et ad protectionem Christi confugere, relinquendo destructionem antichristi cum suis satrapis Dei miraculo. Scimus quidem, quod oportet, ut viis nobis absconditis istud eveniat; sed scimus, quod personarum acceptio non est apud Deum, sed in omni gente vel loco, qui ipsum dilexerit, acceptus est illi.

SECTION XII.-Doctrine of the Sacraments.

OF the doctrinal system of Wiclif, there still remains for us to examine that chief head wherein he placed himself in strongest opposition to the teaching of the Church of Rome-namely, the doctrine of the Lord's Supper-and generally of the Sacraments. We shall, however, handle the doctrine of the other sacraments with comparative brevity, because we are able to refer upon this subject to the full and satisfactory treatment which it has received from Lewald.372 Several points, however, still need more precise definition and some degree of correction.

A. Of the Sacraments in general.

Here the three following questions come under consideration:-1. What is the notion and nature of a sacrament? 2. What are the several sacraments? or, in other words, how many sacraments are there? 3. What view is to be taken of the efficacy of the sacraments?

With regard (1) to the notion of a sacrament, it is to be premised that Wiclif has devoted the first half of the fourth book of the Trialogus to the doctrine of the sacraments, in

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the first chapter of which he treats of the sacraments in general, and especially of the notion of a sacrament.

He sets out from the generic idea of the sign; a sacrament is a sign; to every sign there corresponds a thing signified, the object of which the former is a sign. But this, as Wiclif himself allows, is so general an idea, that it must be said that everything which exists is a sign-for every creature is a sign of the Creator, as smoke is a sign of fire. But God Himself is also a sign-viz., of everything which can be named; for He is the book of life, wherein everything that can be named is inscribed (an allusion to the doctrine of the ideas of all things in God). This generic notion of a sign, therefore, is too general. Wiclif accordingly advances to a more precise definition of the notion—a sacrament is a sign of a holy thing. But this definition also appears to our Thinker to be too wide, for every creature is a sign of the Creator and of its creation-existence-and therefore a sign of a holy thing.373 But even if we advance still further, and define a sacrament with yet more precision as "the visible form of an invisible grace," so as that the sacrament bears in itself a resemblance to, and becomes a cause of the grace, even this definition appears to Wiclif to be of such a kind that every possible thing might be called a sacrament; for every creature perceptible by the senses is the visible appearance of the invisible grace of the Creator, carries in itself a resemblance to the ideas embodied in it, and is the cause of their resemblance and of the knowledge of the Creator (who is known to man from the creature). Here too, accordingly, we find again those metaphysical ideas which lie at the foundation of all Wiclif's thoughts and views of God and the world.

(2.) From what he has observed regarding the idea of the

sacrament results, of itself, his judgment concerning the number of the Sacraments. The sacramental idea, according to his view, is much too wide to allow of his conceding that only the so-called seven sacraments are really such. In other words, Wiclif holds that there are more than seven sacraments.374 He thinks. e.g., that the preaching of the Divine Word is as truly a sacrament as any one of those seven well-known actions. He makes it clearly understood that he looks upon it as an arbitrary limitation-as an artificially constructed dogma-when no more than the septem sacramenta vulgaria are recognised as sacraments.375 It is a mere irony when he complains that it is owing to his poverty of faculty that he conceives that many things on this head of doctrine rest upon too weak a foundation; nor has he yet become acquainted with the labels which must be affixed if the name of sacrament is to be limited to these seven in one and the same sense.376

While Wiclif in most places inclines to the opinion that the seven sacraments had no exclusive right to be regarded as such, i.e., that seven is too small a number for them in case we set out from the generic idea which is common to them all, he nevertheless also indicates an opinion that the number seven is too large, namely, when tried by the standard of Scripture authority. This thought indeed he does not express in plain terms. He only

hints at it at one time by the order in which he treats of the several sacraments, placing the Lord's Supper and Baptism first in order, while leaving the remaining five to follow; while, in another place, he observes expressly that the right order of the sacraments is determined by the measure in which they have for their warrant the express foundation of Scripture.377 In particu

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lar he says of the Lord's Supper, which he handles as first in order, that he does so, among other grounds, upon this one, that it has the strongest Scripture warrant of all; 378 whereas of Extreme unction, which is the last of the seven to be examined by him, he remarks that it has too weak a foundation in that passage of Scripture (James v.) upon which it is commonly rested. 379 When, notwithstanding this, he abstains from entering into any proper critique of the other sacraments, with the exception of Baptism and the Lord's Supper, but follows, on the whole, the same manner of teaching which had been in fixed use since Peter the Lombard, this circumstance was owing to the fact that Wiclif's attention, within the area of this whole locus of doctrine, was directed to one definite point and concentrated upon it.

3. The third question touches the efficacy of the Sacraments.

That by virtue of God's ordinance a certain efficacy, a real communication of grace, is connected with a sacrament, Wicliff has an assured belief. He takes notice how, in contrast with actions and arrangements of human origination, such as the Pope's election, which have no promise of God that He will connect grace with them, God has given the covenanted promise really to communicate grace with the sacraments of Baptism and Repentance, which are obviously named only by way of example. 380 And on another occasion, he lays down quite generally the principle that "all sacraments, when rightly administered, possess a saving efficacy." 381 True, this saving efficacy is conditional; and what are the conditions and limitations according to Wielif within which they have this effectual working? One condition, the most undoubted of all, and