works and d'Ailly pursued the same method with Ockam's Dialogus.[1]
Huss's Commentary on the Sentences of Peter the Lombard, recently published in a volume of eight hundred pages, has re-established the author’s claims to be a sane and well-balanced theological student. Here he expresses himself independently and shows himself conversant with those phases of theological thought which were a subject of special discussion in his day as well as with the fundamental catholic principles.[2]
Comparing the two treatises on the church along general lines this may be said:
Huss is the more clear and direct of the two writers. Much as he seems to repeat himself, he nevertheless pursues a definite aim. Wyclif, as was his custom, was drawn aside by the exuberance of his intellect into all sorts of discussions germane and not strictly germane. His treatise has extended paragraphs on canonization, mathematics, alms, relic worship, the evils of ecclesiastical endowments.[3] He shows his scholastic bent by that peculiar use of Latin terminology characteristic of medieval scholasticism. Although Huss employs some of Wyclif's characteristic words, as antonomasia, yet he is comparatively free in this respect.[4]
- ↑ Schwab, J. Gerson, p. 121, says that Gerson's Declaratio compendiosa, etc., Du Pin, 2: 314–318, is a literal copy—wörtlich—of chapters XVI–XX of Langenstein's Consilium pacis de unione et reform. eccles. Tschackert, P. d'Ailli, p. 43, says of d'Ailly that he copied Ockam almost literally—fast wörtlich.
- ↑ Flajshans, Super IV. Sententiarum, Prague, 1905. In his Introduction Flajshans, a liberal Catholic, pronounces Huss Bohemia's chief religious character. On the appearance of this work Loserth declared that his former judgment disparaging Huss's originality would have to be revised.
- ↑ De Eccles., 44 sqq., 97 sqq., 162 sqq., 274 sqq., 465 sqq. In saying this, however, the occasion which led to the composition of Wyclif's work must be taken into account, that is the case of alleged sacrilege committed in Westminster Abbey. See Loserth's Introd. to his ed.
- ↑ See the glossary in Wyclif's de dom. civ., ed. by Poole, pp. 479–483. Of the one hundred and fifty-nine words there given, Huss seems to use only seven in his de Eccles.
