But dominion, as was stated at the outset, has another
aspect to it ; e the theory of the community of dominion in
itself involves its counterpart, the community of service,
In this we find the only check recognised by Wycliffe,
upon the action of kings : they have a responsibility,
not we may infer from the tenour of his argument
to the people over whom they rule, but to God from whom
they derive their dominion, f They are his stewards,
and lords only by virtue of service. God is the only
lord whose dominion is unattended by this condition ;
all other lords are servants not only of God but also of
all their fellow-men, s The superscription of papal letters,
servus servorum, acknowledges this truth in the most
exalted of ecclesiastical potentates : it has the authority
of the apostle who bade the Galatians, By love serve one
another. We have seen the corollary of this principle;
since all are lords and all servants one of another, then,
all things, all that we call property, must belong in common
to all. But if we are startled by the premature socialism
of the thesis, we have to bear in mind that Wycliffe had
yet to learn its effects in practical life, as displayed in the
excesses of the rebels of 1381. Such application indeed
was never in his mind ; nor did he ever pass a word which
could be interpreted into approval of a violent assertion
of those rights which notwithstanding he fully conceded.
All things were all men s, but so long as the present state
of polity subsisted it was unlawful to acquire them by
force : for on the one hand the human constitution of
society had the divine sanction, although it were imperfect
by comparison with its eternal or evangelical ordering;
and on the other hand force was incompatible with the
primary dictates of the law of God.
Wycliffe’s communism is thus expressly limited to a condition of the world not present, but to be looked for and worked for : nor 1 only thus ; it is also limited to a field of possession other than that of human or temporal acquirement. Earthly loss is heavenly gain, and the care of earthly things is a barrier to our love of those
