Abstract

The writings of John Wyclif , which range from scholastic metaphysics to polemics on church reform, are complex and lively. Scholars have tended to dismiss the possibility that Wyclif's earlier realist metaphysics has any bearing on his later political ideas, arguing either that his monarchism shows his rejection of realism in favor of Ockhamist conceptualism, or that De Civili Dominio's argument that the king should have complete material control of the church was motivated by Wyclif's allegiance to John of Gaunt. I believe this seriously misrepresents Wyclif's integrity as a theologian and his consistency as a philosopher. I argue that Wyclif's metaphysical realism of his Tractatus de Universalibus has a direct bearing on his depiction of God's dominium over creation in De Dominio Divino, which in turn is the basis for his monarchist, ecclesiastically reformative political thought of De Civili Dominio and De Officio Regis, by showing that just civil dominium is an instantiation of the Universal divine dominium relation. ;My analysis of Wyclif's conception of dominium is supplemented by a sustained examination of the concept in the thought of several of Wyclif's predecessors. Following an examination of the fundamentals of Augustine's and Aquinas' thought relevant to dominium, I trace the development of Grace-founded dominium which began with the papal hierocrat Giles of Rome and was fully developed in the anti-fraternal writing of Archbishop Richard Fitzralph. I show both how Wyclif's thought is founded in, and a departure from the thought of both. To show how original Wyclif's monarchism was, I compare it with the political thought of William Ockham, who took a more conventionally Aristotelian stance in supporting monarchy. In later chapters I explain why a term normally used to refer to property-relations can, for Wyclif, apply to just governance, radical ecclesiastical reform, and the loving relation between God and creation. The connections thus demonstrated between Wyclif's metaphysics and his politics give practical import to the former and firm grounding to the latter, allowing Wyclif to emerge as a significant systematic thinker