Lindberg, Conrad (ed.): English Wyclif Tracts 1-3

The three tracts presented in this volume are the most certain to be Wyclif’s of all the sixty or more earlier attributed to him. They are all dated in the Middle English Dictionary (MED) within his lifetime, the earliest -c1378, the latest -c1384; they all contain subject-matter very much connected with his ideas and way of thinking; and they all have linguistic features that single him out, when taken together, as the author of the texts. The first of the three, De Officio Pastorali (O-Pastor for short), was edited by F. D. Matthew for the Early English Text Society (EETS) in 1880 from MS Ashburnham XXVII (now in the John Rylands Library Manchester). This is the only known copy of the text. The second tract, De Papa (Papa for short), from c1380 (MED), was also edited by Matthew in the same volume as O-Pastor from the same MS. No other known copy of the text exists. The third and last of the tracts, Of the Church and Her Members (Church for short), was edited by Thomas Arnold in Select English Works by Wyclif (Oxford University Press 1869-71) from MS Bodley 788. Four other copies of the text are known, one in Dublin, one in Leicester, two in London. Variants from these four will be found with the text. Studia Anglistica Norvegica 5.