[20] Wyclif, Tractatus de officio regis, Wyclif Society, 1887, pp. 56, 193, 237, 250: ‘Leges regni Anglie excellunt leges imperiales cum sint pauce respectu earum, quia supra pauca principia relinquunt residuum epikerie [= ἐπιείκεια] sapientum.… Non credo quod plus viget in Romana civilitate subtilitas racionis sive iusticia quam in civilitate Anglicana.… Non pocius est homo clericus sive philosophus in quantum est doctor civilitatis Romane quam in quantum est iusticiarius iuris Anglicani.… Unde videtur quod si rex Anglie non permitteret canonistas vel civilistas ad hoc sustentari de suis elemosinis vel patrimonio crucifixi ut studeant tales leges … non dubium quin clerus foret utilior sibi et ad ecclesiasticam promocionem humilior ex noticia civilitatis proprie quam ex noticia civilitatis duplicis aliene.’ By ‘the patrimony of the crucified’ Wyclif means ecclesiastical revenues, which some of the bishops have been using in the endowment of legal studies at the universities: e.g. Bishop Bateman at Cambridge.
Wyclif and the law of the emperor.
Wyclif, Select English Works, ed. Arnold, vol. III., p. 326: ‘It were more profit boþe to body and soule þat oure curatis lerneden and tauȝten many of þe kyngis statutis, þan lawe of þe emperour. For oure peple is bounden to þe kyngis statutis and not to þe emperours lawe, but in as moche as it is enclosid in Goddis hestis. Þanne moche tresour and moch tyme of many hundrid clerkis in unyversite and oþere placis is foule wastid aboute bookis of þe emperours lawe and studie about hem.… It semeþ þat curatis schulden raþere lerne and teche þe kyngis statutis, and namely þe Grete Chartre, þan þe emperours lawe or myche part of the popis. For men in oure rewme ben bounden to obeche to þe kyng and his riȝtful lawes and not so to þe emperours; and þei myȝtten wonder wel be savyd, þouȝ many lawes of þe pope had nevere be spoken, in þis world ne þe toþere.’
Wyclif and paynim’s law.
Wyclif, Unprinted English Works, Early English Text Society, 1880, p. 157: ‘Þe fyue and twentiþe errour: þei chesen newe lawis maad of synful men and worldly and couetyse prestis and clerkis … for now heþenne mennus lawis and worldly clerkis statutis ben red in vnyuersitees, and curatis lernen hem faste wiþ grete desire, studie and cost.… Ibid. p. 184: … lawieris maken process bi sotilte and cauyllacions of lawe cyule, þat is moche heþene mennus lawe, and not accepten the forme of þe gospel, as ȝif þe gospel were no so good as paynymes lawe.’ It is interesting to see Janssen’s denunciation of Roman law as Pagan thus forestalled by the great heretic, in whose eyes the Decretals were but little, if at all, better than the Digest.
A. Agustin in England.
[21] For Antonio Agustin (born 1517, bishop of Alife 1556, bishop of Lerida 1561, archbishop of Tarragona 1576, died 1586) see Schulte, Geschichte der Quellen und Literatur des canonischen Rechts, vol. III., p. 723; Maasen, Geschichte der Quellen des canonischen Rechts, vol. I., pp. xix ff. His stay in England is attested in the Venetian Calendars, 1555-6, pp. 20, 24, 32, 34, 56, 166. See also Ibid., 1556-7, p. 1335. See also the funeral oration by And. Schott suffixed to Ant. Augustini De emendatione Gratiani dialogorum libri duo, Par. 1607, p. 320: ‘Iulius tertius P. M. … adeo Antonium dilexit ut et intimis consiliis adhibuerit, legatumque summa cum auctoritate in Britanniam insulam opibus florentissimam miserit, cum Rex vere Catholicus Philippus secundus Mariam reginam, Catholicorum regum Ferdinandi et Isabellae neptem, duxit uxorem.… Anno 1555 revertit ex Anglia Romam Augustinus.’ Apparently he was sent, not merely in order that he might congratulate Philip and Mary, but also that ‘tanquam iurisconsultus legato adesset’ (Schulte, op. cit., p. 724). He is charged by modern historians with not having spoken plainly all that he knew about the origin of the Pseudo-Isidorian decretals. England may have contributed a little towards the explosion of the great forgery by means of books that were lent to the Magdeburg Centuriators by Queen Elizabeth and Abp. Parker. See Foreign Calendar, 1561-2, pp. 117-9.
B. John Story.
[22] See Mr Pollard’s life of Story in Dict. Nat. Biog. See also Dyer’s Reports, f. 300. On his arraignment for high treason Story ineffectually pleaded that he had become a subject of the king of Spain.
[23] See Stintzing, Ulrich Zasius, pp. 216 ff.