Philosophy and Politics in the Thought of John Wyclif

by Stephen E. Lahey

Overview

John Wyclif was the fourteenth-century English thinker responsible for the first English Bible, and for the Lollard movement—persecuted widely for its attempts to reform the church through empowerment of the laity. This study argues that John Wyclif's political agenda was based on a coherent philosophical vision ultimately consistent with his earlier reformative ideas. Several of Wyclif's formal, Latin works proposed that the king should take control of all church property and power in the kingdom, a vision close to what Henry VIII was to realize 150 years later.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780521633468
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	03/13/2003
Series:	Cambridge Studies in Medieval Life and Thought: Fourth Series , #54
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	252
Product dimensions:	6.30(w) x 9.33(h) x 0.83(d)

About the Author

Stephen E. Lahey is Assistant Professor of History, Le Moyne College, New York.

Table of Contents

1. The historiography of Wyclif's dominium theory; 2. Why dominium?; 3. Wyclif's realism and divine dominium; 4. Proprietas in Wyclif's theory of dominium; 5. Iurisdictio in civil dominium; 6. On kingship; 7. Conclusion.

Editorial Reviews

"[A] careful and erudite study.... Recommended." Choice

From the Publisher