JOHN WYCLIF, C. 1331–1384

Andrew E. Larsen

Fourteenth-Century Oxford

Oxford in the middle of the fourteenth century, the Oxford in which Wyclif conducted most of his career, was an institution in transi- tion.1 Down to the end of the thirteenth century, Oxford had oper- ated largely in the shadow of its older sister, the University of Paris, so that intellectual activity at Oxford tended to mirror philosophi- cal and theological concerns at Paris.2 In England, a Parisian edu- cation was considered more prestigious than an Oxford education, to judge from the academic backgrounds of leading English ecclesi- astics. But early in the fourteenth century, Oxford emerged from the Parisian shadow and began producing a large number of talented and distinctly English thinkers, including William of Ockham, Walter Chatton, Richard FitzRalph, Adam Wodeham, and many others. Whereas earlier scholars had often tended to begin their university education at Oxford and then move to Paris to finish it, by the 1320s, this was becoming uncommon, and a Parisian education was becoming less important for episcopal preferment, although an Oxford degree was hardly a guarantee to high office.3 Intellectually, the period from 1315 to 1340 was, in William Courtenay’s phrase, “the Golden Age of English Scholasticism.” But after this, Oxford began its decline.4 This decline has tradi- tionally been blamed on the Black Death, but in fact the Black Death does not appear to have hit Oxford heavily.5 The mortality rate for

1 My thanks to Kira Barnes, Anne Hudson, Ian Levy, Stephen Lahey, and Steve Muhlberger for helpful comments and advice on this essay. 2 William J. Courtenay, Schools and Scholars in Fourteenth Century England, (Princeton, 1987), pp. 149–57. 3 Courtenay, Schools, pp. 151, 154; Jean Dunbabin, “Careers and Vocations,” in The History of the University of Oxford, ed. J.I. Catto and Ralph Evans, (Oxford, 1984), 1:565–605, at p. 590. 4 Courtenay, Schools, pp. 327–48. 5 William Courtenay, “The Black Death and English Higher Education,” Speculum 55 (1980), 698–714; Schools, pp. 331–32, at pp. 702–5. 2 andrew e. larsen students and masters appears to have been closer to twenty percent than the forty percent average for the clergy. Nor were the 1350s a period of sharp decline in the volume of writings being produced; it is possible to identify more than a half-dozen philosophers and an equal number of theologians actively writing at Oxford during the decade. But the philosophical works of this period are mostly of an introductory level, while the theological works tend to be shorter. Wyclif ’s De propositionibus insolubilibus and De logica, which he explic- itly says are written for beginning students, fit into this trend toward introductory philosophy.6 Rather than the Black Death, the decline of Oxford’s intellectual life has its roots in the late 1330s and 1340s. The trend toward shorter and simpler philosophical works began in the 1330s, not the 1350s.7 One cause is the declining recruitment among the Franciscans in the wake of the Poverty Controversy in the 1320s and 1330s. A reduction in the number of new Franciscan recruits in the 1320s and 30s meant a decline in the number of talented Franciscan stu- dents entering Oxford in the late 1330s and 1340s, with a corre- sponding decline in the level of intellectual ferment taking place there.8 Another important factor in Oxford’s decline was the dev- elopment of alternatives to Oxford, including the expansion of Cambridge, and the rise of mendicant studia at London, Norwich, York, and elsewhere.9 These developments would have taken time to be felt at Oxford, but they help explain the scholarly decline that was becoming pronounced by the 1360s. The Black Death may also have caused a drop in the number of masters of grammar who were responsible for training students before they entered the university.10 This would have resulted in fewer and less well-prepared students arriving in Oxford in the later 1350s and afterward, which would have had an impact on the level of academic achievement. In the 1350s, there were also problems with so-called “wax doctors,” men- dicants who were granted exemptions from normal requirements such

6 Courtenay, Schools, p. 349; Catto, “Wyclif,” p. 190. 7 Courtenay, Schools, p. 346. In some sense, the number of works produced in the 1350s represents a brief revival, not a new decline. 8 Courtenay, Schools, p. 331. 9 Catto, “Wyclif,” pp. 176–8; Courtenay, Schools, pp. 88–117. 10 Courtenay, “Black Death,” pp. 706–7.