Europe After Wyclif


Book Description

This volume brings together scholarship that discusses late-medieval religious controversy on a pan-European scale, with particular attention to developments in England, Bohemia, and at the general councils of the fifteenth century. Controversies such as those that developed in England and Bohemia have received ample attention for decades, and recent scholarship has introduced valuable perspectives and findings to our knowledge of these aspects of European religion, literature, history, and thought. Yet until recently, scholars working on these controversies have tended to work in regional isolation, a practice that has given rise to the impression that the controversies were more or less insular, their significance measured in terms of their local or regional influence. Europe After Wyclif was designed specifically to encourage analysis of cultural cross-currents—the ways in which regional controversies, while still products of their own environments and of local significance, were inseparable from cultural developments that were experienced internationally.




The Reformation


Book Description

A history of the period known as The Reformation: 1300-1564.




The Story of Civilization


Book Description

A history of European civilization from Wyclif to Calvin: 1300-1564.




Text and Controversy from Wyclif to Bale


Book Description

Text and Controversy from Wyclif to Bale reflects and develops Anne Hudson's pioneering work in textual criticism and religious controversy from the late medieval period to the Reformation. Written by newly emergent as well as internationally recognised scholars, the volume explores the wide spectrum of religious thought and practices between c.1360 and c.1560. Many essays, following the methodology of Anne Hudson's scholarship, engage in the close study of manuscripts and archival holdings, disclosing new material and offering significant re-evaluation of documentary evidence and neglected texts. At a time of urgent calls for the reform of the Church, both in Britain and in mainland Europe, the voices of heresy can not always be distinguished from those of orthodox critics. Anne Hudson's coinage of the term 'grey area' to describe the indeterminate boundary between radical orthodoxy and heterodoxy provides the lead for investigations into theological debate, devotional habits, and censorship. The volume significantly redefines our understanding of texts, history, and controversies from Wyclif to Bale.




Studies in the Transmission of Wyclif's Writings


Book Description

Wyclif's ideas caused a major upheaval both in the country of his birth and in the Bohemian area of central Europe; that upheaval affected theological, ecclesiastical and political developments from the late 14th to the early 16th centuries. Some of those ideas were transmitted orally through Wyclif's university teaching in Oxford, and in his preaching in London and Lutterworth, but the main medium through which his message was disseminated was the written word, using the universal western language of Latin. The papers in this collection look at aspects of that dissemination, from the organization and revision of Wyclif's works to form a summa of his ideas, the techniques devised to identify and make accessible his multifarious writings, the attempts of the orthodox clerical establishment to destroy them, through to the fortunes of his texts in the Reformation period; manuscripts written in England and those copied abroad, mostly in Bohemia, are considered. Although most of the papers have been published previously, a new edition of the important Hussite catalogue of Wyclif's writings is provided, and three lengthy sections contribute new material and additions and corrections to previous listings of Wyclif manuscripts.




Wycliffism and Hussitism


Book Description

John Wyclif (d. 1384), famous Oxford philosopher-theologian and controversialist, was posthumously condemned as a heretic at the Council of Constance in 1415. Wyclif's influence was pan-European and had a particular impact on Prague, where Jan Hus, from Charles University, was his avowed disciple and the leader of a dissident reformist movement. Hus, condemned to the stake at Constance, gathered around him a prolific circle of disciples who changed the landscape of late medieval religion and literature in Bohemia, just as Wyclif's own followers had done in England. Both thinkers, and the movements associated with them, played a crucial role in the transformation of later medieval European thought, in particular through a radically enlarged role of textual production in the vernaculars (especially Middle English and Old Czech), as well as in Latin, in the philosophical, theological, and ecclesiological realms. This interdisciplinary volume of essays brings together cutting-edge research from scholars working in these and contiguous fields and asks fundamental questions about the methods that informed Wycliffite and Hussite writings and those by their interlocutors and opponents. Viewing these debates through a methodological lens enables a reassessment of the impact that they had, and the responses they elicited, across a range of European cultures, from England in the west via France and Austria to Bohemia in the east.




From England to Bohemia


Book Description

The first examination of cultural exchanges between England and Bohemia after 1382, eventually leading to the suppression of heresy.







On Simony


Book Description

Repeatedly denounced by bishops, local synods, national councils, and popes, simony - the buying and selling of spiritual offices - had enjoyed a centuries-old existence in the church when John Wyclif penned this treatise in the late fourteenth century. The tenth in a series of twelve treatises the English reformer wrote between 1374 and 1382, On Simony forms an integral part of the writings generally considered his summa. Basing his condemnation of simony on an idiosyncratic concept of dominion developed in earlier treatises, Wyclif argues that the church, with its spiritual message and mission, has no right to temporal power or temporal goods. Viewing simony as a form of theft, the selling of spiritual things over which it has no dominion, Wyclif advocates the removal of all property from the church - by secular force, if necessary - and the abolition of ecclesiastical patronage. In the Introduction to this first-ever English translation, Professor McVeigh traces the history of simony in the church and describes the circumstances prompting Wyclif to develop his theory of dominion, showing the decisive influence of this theory on his concept of simony. A brief discussion of the treatise's influence on later reformers, both inside and outside England, follows a thorough, chapter-by-chapter analysis of the treatise itself.




A Survey of the History of Global Christianity, Second Edition


Book Description

Since Jesus’s resurrection, Christianity has expanded across the globe and shaped a vast array of groups and movements. A Survey of the History of Global Christianity, Second Edition, provides an overview of the Christian faith from the apostolic age to the global present. In a friendly and informative tone, author Mark Nickens outlines the historical context of important developments in doctrine and practice, including: o the persecution and resilience of the early church o the results of increasing papal power in Europe during the Middle Ages o the Reformation and later movements that influenced European Christianity o the various sects of American Christianity that arose in cycles of revival o an examination of Orthodoxy and the history of Christianity in Asia, Africa, Latin America, and the West Indies. In addition to historical information, this book features quotes and spiritual lessons from noteworthy Christians throughout the centuries. By understanding how Christian doctrine has developed over the ages and across the globe, readers will better understand where their own faith tradition comes from.