# The Acts and Monuments of John Foxe/Volume 3/The Sentence given by the Council of Constance, in condemnation of the Doctrine, and Five and Forty Articles of John Wickliff

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We are taught by the acts and histories of the holy fathers, that the catholic faith, without which, as the holy apostle St. Paul saith, it is impossible to please God, hath been always defended by the faithful and spiritual soldiers of the church, by the shield of faith, against the false worshippers of the same faith, or rather perverse impugners; who, through their proud curiosity, will seem to know more, and to be wiser than they ought to be, and for The spiritual wars of holy church pre-figured by the carnal wars of the Israelites.the desire of the glory of the world, have gone about oftentimes to overthrow the same. These kinds of wars and battles have been prefigured to us before in those carnal wars of the Israelites against the idolatrous people. For in those spiritual wars the holy catholic church, through the virtue and power of faith, being illustrated with the beams of the heavenly light by the providence of God, and being holpen by the help and defence of the saints and holy men, hath always continued immaculate, and, the darkness of errors, as her most cruel enemies, being put to flight, she hath most gloriously triumphed over all. But in these our days, the old and unclean enemy hath raised up new contentions and strifes, that the elect of this world might be known, whose prince and captain in time past was one John Wickliff, a false christian; who, during his lifetime, taught and sowed very obstinately many articles contrary to and against the christian religion, and the catholic faith. Dialogue and Trialogue of Wickliff.And the same John Wickliff wrote certain books which he called a Dialogue, and a Trialogue, besides many other treatises and works, which he both wrote and taught, in which he wrote the aforesaid, and many other damnable and execrable articles; which his books for the publication and advancement of his perverse doctrine, he did set forth openly for every man to read, whereby, besides many offences, great hurt and damage of soul hath ensued in divers regions and countries, but, especially in the kingdoms of England and Bohemia. Against whom the masters and doctors of the universities of Oxford and Prague, rising up in the truth and verity of God, according to the order of the schools, within a while after did reprove and condemn the said articles.
Ask my fellow if I be a thief.
So we hear you.
What these articles were, here condemned by the council, collected out of all his works, and exhibited to that council, to the number of forty-five, the copy of them here following declareth.
* ↑ "Unwholesome," because they teach against the pomp of the pope.
* ↑ Because this "trialogue" teareth the pope's triple crown. [The ancient crown or "tiara" (mentioned at page 172 of vol. ii.) was a round high cap. Pope John XXIII. first encircled it with a crown; Boniface added to it a second crown, and Benedict XII. added the third. This covering for the head of the pope, which has increased in splendour, as his church has increased in pride, is the badge of his civil right, as the keys are of his spiritual jurisdiction; for as soon as the pope is dead, his arms are represented with the tiara alone, without the keys.—Ed.]
* ↑ Upon this injunction against Wicklitff's works, Foxe observes, "Rub a galled horse on the back, and he will wince." By which he means, that the church of Rome, having been once made to smart under the attacks of Wickliff, was anxious that old wounds should not be reopened and therefore condemned and reprobated his writings.—Ed.
* ↑ "At Rome," nether barrel, better herring.