Wycliffe, John 755women’s religious orders SeeNUNS AND NUNNERIES.
wool SeeANIMALS AND ANIMAL HUSBANDRY.
works of mercy The works of mercy were demon-
strations of love for neighbors and were done as a conse-
quence of love for GOD. The theologians of the
Scholastic period in the 13th century defined seven cor-
poreal and seven spiritual works of mercy. They were
based on traditional Orthodox and Western concepts of
practicing and cultivating the VIRTUES. The seven corpo-
real works of mercy were to feed the hungry, to give
drink to the thirsty, to clothe the naked, to visit the sick,
to visit prisoners, to harbor strangers, and to bury the
dead. They were all based on the words of Christ in the
GOSPELS. The seven spiritual works of mercy were to
convert the sinner, to teach the ignorant, to counsel the
doubtful, to comfort the sorrowing, to bear wrongs
patiently, to forgive injuries, and to pray for the living
and the dead. To help another in these ways was to see
Christ in that person and act as Christ himself would
act. Christians were to practice the works of mercy at
every opportunity. They were much demonstrated as
practiced by the saints in hagiographical literature and in
didactic art. Their practice would assist in gaining salva-
tion; and those who were helped would later intercede
for the practitioner.
Over the course of the period 300 to 1500, the
church established institutions to carry out these works.
To help these activities was to help the recipients of the
largesse or kindness.
See alsoBURIAL RULES AND PRACTICES; CHARITY AND
POVERTY; DEATH AND THE DEAD; HAGIOGRAPHY; HOSPITALS;
PREACHING AND PREACHERS; SERMONS AND HOMILIES; WILLS
AND TESTAMENTS.
Further reading:Michel Mollat, The Poor in the Mid-
dle Ages: An Essay in Social History,trans. Arthur Gold-
hammer (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press,
1986); Fritz Eichenberg, Works of Mercy,ed. Robert Ells-
berg (Maryknoll, N.Y.: Orbis Books, 1992).
Wulfila SeeULPHILAS.
Wulfstan of Worcester, Saint(ca. 1008–1095) Anglo-
Saxon monk, bishop
Born about 1008 to a family closely connected with the
church of Worcester, Wulfstan became a priest before
1038, then a monk in the cathedral priory there and suc-
cessively novice master, precentor, sacrist, and prior of
that house. He was elected bishop of Worcester in 1062
and was in that office until his death on January 20,
- In the meantime he became famous for his private
PRAYER, HOMILIES, PREACHING, and labors opposing the
slave trade. After the Norman Conquest of ENGLANDin
1066, he submitted to WILLIAMI, though he had sup-
ported HAROLD, and played a leading role in maintaining
and transmitting English monastic values as the spiritual
leader of the surviving English church. He aided in the
compilation of the DOMESDAYBOOK.Trying to preserve
writing in Old English, he maintained a SCRIPTORIUMthat
was an important means for the preservation and trans-
mission of texts in Old English. He also sponsored the
writing of the Chronicle of John of Worcesterand the com-
pilation of Hemming’s Chartulary to protect the docu-
ments containing the history of the property of the
cathedral of Worcester. He was canonized by Pope INNO-
CENTIII on April 21, 1203.
Further reading: J. E. Cross and Andrew Hamer,
eds., Wulfstan’s Canon Law Collection(Cambridge: D. S.
Brewer, 1999); Emma Mason, Saint Wulfstan of Worcester,
c. 1008–1095(Oxford: B. Blackwell, 1990).Wycliffe, John(Wyclif) (ca. 1329–1384) academic
philosopher and reformer
John Wycliffe was born about 1329 in Wiclif-on-Tees in
Yorkshire. Between 1356 and 1381 he lived mainly in
OXFORD, supporting himself as a nonresident holder of
several ecclesiastical BENEFICES. He became a fellow of
Meron College and then regent or master of Balliol Col-
lege but resigned to be vicar of Fillingham. In the 1360s
his university reputation was based on his work in LOGIC
and PHILOSOPHY; he was well noted for his opposition as a
realist to the NOMINALISMof the followers of WILLIAM OF
OCKHAM. From 1371 he lectured on THEOLOGY. During
the 1370s he played a role as a polemicist against ecclesi-
astical privileges and as a preacher to the LAITY.
Already involved in JOHN of Gaunt’s anticlerical
movement, from 1379, Wycliffe began to express more
radical views on the Eucharist and from 1380 to attack
the friars, calling them mere marginal sects within Chris-
tianity. About the Eucharist he thought that after conse-
cration of the bread and wine the accidents of shape and
color but also their substance remained as they were
seen. He thus denied the doctrine of transubstantiation.
This was a product of his philosophical REALISM and
belief in the indestructibility of substance. He also used
historical arguments based on his reading of Scripture
and the father of the church. Furthermore, he did not see
the need for the almost magical intervention of priests
with GOD. He was readily condemned by the Pope Gre-
gory XI (r. 1370–78) in 1377. A university commission in
Oxford in 1380 declared his views on the Eucharist
heretical. In 1382 a mendicant commission at Blackfriars,
“the Earthquake Council,” in LONDON condemned 24
heresies in his writings. He was even associated in the
mind of some with the breakdown of public order in the
Peasants’ Revolt in 1381.
In 1381 Wycliffe had retired from Oxford to Lutter-
worth, still under the protection of John of Gaunt. John
HUSand his followers in BOHEMIAassimilated many of
Wycliffe’s ideas, which became part of their program of