Page "John Wycliffe" Paragraph 30

Wycliffe's influence was never greater than at the moment when pope and antipope sent their ambassadors to England to gain recognition for themselves.

In the ambassadors ' presence, he delivered an opinion before Parliament that showed, in an important ecclesiastical political question ( the matter of the right of asylum in Westminster Abbey ), a position that was to the liking of the State.

How Wycliffe came to be active in the interest of Urban is seen in passages in his latest writings, in which he expressed himself in regard to the papacy in a favorable sense.

On the other hand he states that it is not necessary to go either to Rome or to Avignon in order to seek a decision from the pope, since the triune God is everywhere.

Our pope is Christ.

He taught that the Church can continue to exist even though it have no visible leader ; but there can be no damage when the Church possesses a leader of the right kind.

To distinguish between what the pope should be, if one is necessary, and the pope as he appeared in Wycliffe's day was the purpose of his book on the power of the pope.

The Church militant, Wycliffe taught, needs a head – but one whom God gives the Church.

The elector can only make someone a pope if the choice relates to one who is elect God.

But that is not always the case.

It may be that the elector is himself not predestined and chooses one who is in the same case – a veritable Antichrist.

One must regard as a true pope one who in teaching and life most nearly follows Jesus and Saint Peter.