John Wycliffe & Great Flatterers of the People

GREAT FLATTERERS OF THE PEOPLE, NEITHER REPROVING NOR REMOVING THEIR SINS FROM AMONG THEM

Also friars show not to the people their great sins stably, as God bids, and namely to mighty men of the world, but please them, and glozen,^e and nourish them in sin. And since it is the office of a preacher to show men their foul sins and pains therefore, and friars take this office, and do it not, they be cause of damnation of the people. For in this they be foul traitors to God and eke^a to the people, and they be nurses of the fiend of hell. For by flattering and false behests^b they let men live in their lusts, and comfort them therein, and sometimes they pursue other true preachers, for they will not gloze^c mighty men, and comfort them in their sins, but will sharply tell them the sothe;^d and thus mighty men hire by great costs a false traitor, to lead them to hell And ensample men may take how friars suffer mighty men, from year to year, to live in avowtrie,^e and covetousness, and extortious doing, and many other sins. And when men be hardened in such great sins, and will not amend them, friars should flee their homely company; but they do not thus, lest they lose worldly friendship, favour, or winning; and thus for the money they sell men’s souls to Satan.^[1]

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^e flatter

^a also

^b commandments

^c flatter

^d truth

^e adultery

^[1] De Wycliffe, J. (1845). Tracts and Treatises of John de Wycliffe. (R. Vaughan, Ed.) (pp. 229–230). London: Blackburn and Pardon.