y
or by agents.

An Oxford theologian and preacher, John Wyclif, voiced the popular
resentment of the materialism of the church, benefit of clergy,
immorality of priests, and the selling of indulgences and pardons.
Encouraged by the king, he argued against the supremacy of the
papal law over the King's courts and against payments to the
papacy. He opined that the church had no power to excommunicate.
The friars had become mere beggars and the church was still
wealthy. He proposed that all goods should be held in common by
the righteous and that the church should hold no property but be
entirely spiritual. He believed that people should rely on their
individual consciences. He thought that the Bible should be
available to people who could read English so that the people
could have a direct access to God without priests or the pope.
Towards this end, he translated it from Latin into English in
1384. His preachers spread his views throughout the country. The
church then possessed about one-third of the land of the nation.

William of Ockham, an Englishman educated at Oxford and teaching
theology in Paris, taught that the primary form of knowledge came
from experience gained through the senses and that God might cause
a person to think that he has intuitive knowledge of an existent
object when there is in fact no such object.

Most great lords were literate. Many stories described good men,
who set an example to be followed, and bad men, whose habits were
to be avoided. Stories were written about pilgrimage vacations of
ordinary people to religious sites in England. Will Langland's
poem "The Vision of William Concerning Piers Plowman" portrays a
pilgrimage of common people to the shrine of Truth led by a
virtuous laborer. Mystics wrote practical advice with
transcendental teaching, for instance "Scale of Perfection"
attributed to Walter Hilton and "Cloud of Unknowing". Richard
Rolle wrote about spiritual matters, probably the "Prick of
Conscience". Richard de Bury wrote "Philobiblon" about book
lovers. Jean Froissart wrote the "Chronicles" on knights. Courtly
ideals were expressed in "Sir Gawaine and the Grene Knyght",
wherein the adventures of the hero, an Arthur knight, are
allegorical in the struggle against the world, the flesh, and the
devil (1370). "Pearl" eulogized all that is pure and innocent on
the event of the death of a two year old child.

Geoffrey Chaucer was a squire and diplomat of the king. His "Tale