Misplaced Pages

#44955

95-587: The first English mention of the cockatrice was in the 14th century John Wycliffe translation of the Bible. The word was used for the translation of various Hebrew words for asp and adder in the Book of Isaiah 11 , 14 and 59 . The Oxford English Dictionary gives a derivation from Old French cocatris , from medieval Latin calcatrix , a translation of the Greek ichneumon , meaning tracker. The twelfth century legend

190-522: A hippogriff 's egg, and one of them must ride the newly hatched hippogriff. Queen Sophonisba gives Lord Juss a hippogriff egg, but their companion, the Impland native Mivarsh Faz, steals the egg and tries to use it himself, resulting in his death. Lord Juss and Brandoch Daha set out for home, their quest defeated for the time being. But matters are not completely hopeless, as one of Queen Sophonisba's martlet scouts has told them of another hippogriff egg lying at

285-415: A Bishop. The Council of Constance declared Wycliffe a heretic on 4 May 1415, and banned his writings. The Council decreed that Wycliffe's works should be burned and his bodily remains removed from consecrated church ground, following the customary logic that heretics had put themselves outside the church. This order, confirmed by Pope Martin V , was eventually carried out in 1428. Wycliffe's corpse, or

380-496: A birth date of 1324 but Hudson and Kenny state only records "suggest he was born in the mid-1320s". Conti states that he was born "before 1331". Wycliffe received his early education close to his home. It is unknown when he first came to Oxford , with which he was so closely connected until the end of his life, but he is known to have been at Oxford around 1345. Thomas Bradwardine was the Archbishop of Canterbury and his book On

475-430: A blare of trumpets, an ambassador from Witchland arrives, "craving present audience" and the story starts anew. The Demons and their allies The Witchlanders and their allies The named nations and countries are: The King of Witchland claims lordship over a number of locations which are not described (page 12): Despite the names of the nations, all the characters in the book are recognizably human and they are all

570-647: A blue and beige background is shown to be the emblem of the French National Quidditch team in the 2003 video game Harry Potter: Quidditch World Cup . In the video game Boktai: The Sun Is in Your Hand (2003), cockatrices are among the enemies the player faces in Sol City. In the animated series My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic (2010-2019), a cockatrice is stated to live in the Everfree Forest . In

665-444: A cockatrice to Gro: "Behold and see, that which sprung from the egg of a cock, hatched by the deaf adder. The glance of its eye sufficeth to turn to stone any living thing that standeth before it. Were I but for one instant to loose my spells whereby I hold it in subjection, in that moment would end my life days and thine ..." Therewith came forth that offspring of perdition from its hole, strutting erect on its two legs that were

760-673: A creature. In continental European heraldic systems, cockatrices may be simply referred to as dragons instead. The cockatrice was the heraldic beast of the Langleys of Agecroft Hall in Lancashire, England, as far back as the 14th century. It is also the symbol of 3 (Fighter) Squadron , a fighter squadron of the Royal Air Force . John Wycliffe John Wycliffe ( / ˈ w ɪ k l ɪ f / ; also spelled Wyclif , Wickliffe , and other variants; c. 1328 – 31 December 1384)

855-646: A famous wrestler, can defeat Goldry Bluszco in a wrestling match. The match is held in the neutral territory of the Foliot Isles, and Gorice is killed. His successor (or reincarnation) Gorice XII is a sorcerer who banishes Goldry to an enchanted mountain prison, by means of a perilous sorcery requiring the help of the devious Goblin traitor Lord Gro. While Lord Spitfire is sent back to raise an army out of Demonland, Lord Juss and his cousin Brandoch Daha, aided by King Gaslark of Goblinland, attempt an assault on Carcë,

950-494: A form of sedition or treason, and ordered that Lollard books, frequently associated with Wycliffe, be handed over and burnt; someone who refused and would not abjure could be burnt. The "Constitutions of Oxford" of 1408 established rules in Oxford University, and specifically named John Wycliffe as it Lollard writings as heretical; it decreed that new translation efforts of Scripture into English should be first authorized by

1045-556: A heroic prose made of high ceremonial gestures and tropes from the great age of metaphor and described The Worm as being "quite unique among modern novels" as "a narrative of pure event" where, with a lone exception, "we are never given the interior of a character, only the actions". In 1963, Avram Davidson praised the novel's prose for "abound[ing] in beautiful, quotable language" and its story as one of "war, witchcraft, adventure, conspiracy, violence, bloodshed, intrigue." Davidson, though, faulted Eddison's conception, saying " Ouroboros

SECTION 10

#1732851492045

1140-520: A neighbour's, was exhumed; unusually, on the orders of the bishop the remains were burned and the ashes drowned in the River Swift , which flows through Lutterworth. None of Wycliffe's contemporaries left a complete picture of his person, his life, and his activities. Paintings representing Wycliffe are from a later period. In The Testimony of William Thorpe (1407) (possibly apocryphal), Wycliffe appears wasted and physically weak. Thorpe says Wycliffe

1235-591: A reforming pope. The literary achievements of Wycliffe's last days, such as the Trialogus , stand at the peak of the knowledge of his day. His last work, the Opus evangelicum , the last part of which he named in characteristic fashion "Of Antichrist", remained uncompleted. While he was saying Mass in the parish church on Holy Innocents' Day , 28 December 1384, he suffered a stroke, and died a few days later. The anti-Lollard statute of 1401 De heretico comburendo classed heresy as

1330-409: A rooster's head rather than a dragon 's. The cockatrice, like the rooster, is often depicted with its comb, wattles and beak being of a different colour from the rest of its body. The cockatrice is sometimes referred to as a basilisk, but Fox-Davies distinguishes the two on the basis of the heraldic basilisk possessing a tail ending in a dragon's head, although he does not know of any arms depicting such

1425-708: A short preface to an anthology of Eddison's works, including The Worm Ouroboros , concluding that "No writer can be said to remind us of Eddison." In contrast to The Lord of the Rings , to which mythopoeia is central, Eddison makes few references either to actual mythology or to an invented mythology after the fashion of the Silmarillion . One example of this is Eddison's ad hoc names for people and places versus Tolkien's invention of entire languages. The tale's morality has also been described as uncommon in modern fantasy; in particular, it differs sharply from Tolkien's heroism of

1520-597: A sting in the end thereof, and from its beak its forked tongue flickered venomously. And the stature of the thing was a little above a cubit. The cockatrice has also been used as a staple enemy creature in fantasy RPGs such as Golden Axe , Fighting Fantasy and Dungeons and Dragons or computer RPGs like Dragon's Dogma (2012). A cockatrice is mentioned in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2000) by Hermione Granger in chapter fifteen. A cockatrice involved in one of

1615-471: Is a heroic high fantasy novel by English writer E. R. Eddison , first published in 1922. The book describes the protracted war between the domineering King Gorice of Witchland and the Lords of Demonland in an imaginary world that appears mainly medieval and partly reminiscent of Norse sagas . The work is slightly related to Eddison's later Zimiamvian Trilogy , and collectively they are sometimes referred to as

1710-530: Is a classic, but it is not and cannot be a great classic," because it lacks "humanity"—the realistic detail of great works like the Arabian Nights, where characters "do not merely kiss and declaim and posture." However, J. Max Patrick, also reviewing the Xanadu paperback, dismissed the novel as "a pseudo- Ossianic epic, adolescent in tone and pretentiously archaic", although commenting that "Eddison sometimes achieves

1805-399: Is also a dungeon boss in the underground labyrinth gameplay section of Little Witch Academia: Chamber of Time (2017), a video game for PC and PS4. The Swedish Black Metal band Funeral Mist has a song named Cockatrice, in their 2018 album Hekatomb. Arthur Fox-Davies describes the cockatrice as "comparatively rare" in heraldry, and as closely resembling a wyvern outside of possessing

1900-450: Is destroyed. Duke Corsus poisons the remaining nobles of Witchland, and is killed himself by the dying Corinius. Though triumphant, the Demon lords find that victory is bitter because there are no more enemies worthy of their heroism, no more great deeds to perform. Sophonisba, seeking to reward their heroism, prays to the gods, who return the world to its state of four years before. And so, with

1995-813: Is said to have completed a translation direct from the Vulgate into Middle English – a version now known as Wycliffe's Bible . He may have personally translated the Gospels of Matthew , Mark , Luke and John but it is possible he initially translated the entire New Testament Early Version. It is assumed that his associates translated the Old Testament and revised the Late Version. Wycliffe's Bible appears to have been completed prior to 1384, with additional updated versions being done by Wycliffe's assistant John Purvey , and others, in 1388 and 1395. More recently historians of

SECTION 20

#1732851492045

2090-468: The basilisk ( basiliscus ) was the product of an egg laid by a rooster and incubated by a toad ; a snake might be substituted in re-tellings. Cockatrice became seen as synonymous with basilisk when the basiliscus in Bartholomeus Anglicus 's De proprietatibus rerum (ca 1260) was translated by John Trevisa as cockatrice (1397). This legend has a possible Egyptian folk root;

2185-606: The friars who supported it. In the summer of 1381, Wycliffe formulated his doctrine of the Lord's Supper in twelve short sentences, and made it a duty to advocate it everywhere. Then the English hierarchy launched proceedings against him. The chancellor of the University of Oxford had some of the declarations pronounced heretical. When this was announced to Wycliffe, he declared that no one could change his convictions. He then appealed – not to

2280-482: The morning star or stella matutina of the English Reformation . Certain of Wycliffe's later followers, derogatorily called Lollards by their orthodox contemporaries in the 15th and 16th centuries, adopted a number of the beliefs attributed to Wycliffe such as theological virtues , predestination , iconoclasm , and the notion of caesaropapism , with some questioning the veneration of saints ,

2375-606: The sacraments , requiem masses , transubstantiation , monasticism , and the legitimacy or role of the Papacy . Wycliffe's writings in Latin greatly influenced the philosophy and teaching of the Czech reformer Jan Hus ( c. 1369–1415). Wycliffe was born in the village of Hipswell , near Richmond in the North Riding of Yorkshire , England, around the 1320s. He has conventionally been given

2470-523: The "visible" Catholic Church . To Wycliffe, the Church was the totality of those who are predestined to blessedness. No one who is eternally lost has part in it. There is one universal Church , and outside of it there is no salvation . His first tracts and greater works of ecclesiastical-political content defended the privileges of the State. By 1379 in his De ecclesia ("On the Church"), Wycliffe clearly claimed

2565-640: The 1991 Dell edition) shows that Eddison started imagining the stories which would turn into The Worm Ouroboros at a very early age. An exercise book titled The Book of Drawings dated 1892 and created by Eddison is in the Bodleian Library . In this book are 59 drawings in pencil, captioned by the author, containing many of the heroes and villains of the later work. Some of the drawings, such as The murder of Gallandus by Corsus and Lord Brandoch Daha challenging Lord Corund , depict events of Ouroboros . As might be expected, significant differences exist between

2660-540: The 2011 episode "Stare Master", the cockatrice turns Twilight Sparkle and one of Fluttershy 's chickens, Elizabeak, to stone using its gaze, but reverts them back after being intimidated by Fluttershy's own stare. On the SCP Foundation collaborative writing project, cockatrices are shown in the story SCP-1013 - Cockatrice (2011). An SCP-1013 instead paralyzes its prey by staring at them, only turning their skin to stone upon biting them, after which it will peck through

2755-785: The Authorized Version and the Revised Version. In Shakespeare's play Richard III (c. 1593), the Duchess of York compares her son Richard to a cockatrice: O ill-dispersing wind of misery! O my accursed womb, the bed of death! A cockatrice hast thou hatch'd to the world, Whose unavoided eye is murderous. A cockatrice is also mentioned in Romeo and Juliet (1597), in Act 3, scene 2 line 47, by Juliet . Hath Romeo slain himself? Say thou but 'Ay,' And that bare vowel 'I' shall poison more Than

2850-625: The Bible into English while sitting in a room above what is now the porch in Ludgershall Church. In 1369, Wycliffe obtained a bachelor's degree in theology, and his doctorate in 1372. In 1374, he received the crown living of St Mary's Church, Lutterworth in Leicestershire , which he retained until his death. In 1374, Wycliffe's name appears on a commission, after a bishop, which the English Government sent to Bruges to discuss with

2945-530: The Bible to translate different Hebrew words. This usage was followed by the King James Version , the word being used several times. The Revised Version —following the tradition established by Jerome 's Vulgate basiliscus —renders the word as " basilisk ", and the New International Version translates it as " viper ". In Proverbs 23:32 the similar Hebrew tzeph'a is rendered "adder", both in

Cockatrice - Misplaced Pages Continue

3040-454: The Catholic priesthood during the 14th century and is often considered an important predecessor to Protestantism . His theory of dominion meant that men in mortal sin were not entitled to exercise authority in the church or state, nor to own property. Wycliffe insisted on the radical poverty of all clergy. Wycliffe has been characterised as the "evening star" of scholasticism and as

3135-635: The Cause of God against the Pelagians , a bold recovery of the Pauline–Augustinian doctrine of grace, greatly shaped young Wycliffe's views, as did the Black Death , which reached England in the summer of 1348. From his frequent references to it in later life it appears to have made a deep and abiding impression upon him. According to Robert Vaughn, the effect was to give Wycliffe "very gloomy views in regard to

3230-506: The Church . In the light of the virulence of the plague, which had subsided seven years previously, Wycliffe's studies led him to the opinion that the close of the 14th century would mark the end of the world. While other writers viewed the plague as God's judgment on sinful people, Wycliffe saw it as an indictment of an unworthy clergy. The mortality rate among the clergy had been particularly high and those who replaced them were, in his opinion, uneducated or generally disreputable. In 1361, he

3325-424: The Church had fallen into sin and that it ought therefore to give up all its property, and that the clergy must live in poverty. The tendency of the high offices of state to be held by clerics was resented by many of the nobles, such as the backroom power broker John of Gaunt , who would have had his own reasons for opposing the wealth and power of the clergy, since it challenged the foundation of his power. Wycliffe

3420-515: The English clergy were irritated by this encounter, and attacks upon Wycliffe began. Wycliffe's second and third books dealing with civil government carry a sharp polemic . On 22 May 1377, Pope Gregory XI sent five copies of a bull against Wycliffe, dispatching one to the Archbishop of Canterbury , and the others to the Bishop of London , King Edward III , the Chancellor , and the university. Among

3515-592: The Middle English works (tracts) ascribed to Wycliffe can be confidently attributed to him, in contrast to the Latin works, with the possible exception of six: On the Pastoral Office , On the Pope , On the Church and Her Members , Of Confession , Of Pseudo-Friars , and Of Dominion . A large number of sermons ascribed to him, about 250 in Middle English and 170 in Latin, survive. According to tradition Wycliffe

3610-407: The Rings (which it predates by 32 years). Tolkien had known Eddison personally and had read The Worm Ouroboros , and praised it in print, although in a 1957 letter he said of Eddison "I thought that, corrupted by an evil and indeed silly 'philosophy', he was coming to admire, more and more, arrogance and cruelty. Incidentally, I thought his nomenclature slipshod and often inept." C. S. Lewis wrote

3705-622: The Wycliffite movement have suggested that Wycliffe had at most a minor role in the actual translations or contributed ad hoc passages taken from his English theological writings, with some, building on the earlier theories of Francis Aidan Gasquet , going as far as to suggest he had no role in the translations other than the translation projects perhaps being inspired, at least partially, by Wycliffe's biblicism at Oxford, but otherwise being orthodox Catholic translations later co-opted by his followers. In keeping with Wycliffe's belief that scripture

3800-490: The Zimiamvian series. The Worm Ouroboros is written largely in sixteenth-century English, a nearly unique approach among popular fantasy novels; with Eddison making use of his experience translating Norse sagas and reading medieval and Renaissance poetry. Eddison also incorporated a number of actual early modern poems into the story, including Shakespeare's 18th sonnet , all meticulously credited in an appendix. The book

3895-491: The action of his narration to a more attractive pace." Reviewing a 1952 edition, Boucher and McComas described it as "one of the major imaginative novels of this century" and "the detailed creation of a vividly heroic alien history." They particularly commended "the resonant clangor of its prose, the tremendous impetus of its story-telling, [and] the magnificent audacity (and sternly convincing consistency) of its fantasy concepts." Donald Barr declared that Eddison wrote "in

Cockatrice - Misplaced Pages Continue

3990-481: The aftermath the continuing institutional chaos after the Black Death (1347-1349) Wycliffe entered the politics of the day with his great work De civili dominio ("On Civil Dominion"), which drew arguments from the works of Richard FitzRalph 's. This called for the royal divestment of all church property. In 1377, Wycliffe's ideas on lordship and church wealth caused his first official condemnation by Pope Gregory XI, who censured 19 articles. Wycliffe argued that

4085-408: The arrest of those in error. The citadel of the reformatory movement was Oxford, where Wycliffe's most active helpers were. The ban applied to them and they were summoned to recant. Nicholas of Hereford went to Rome to appeal. On 17 November 1382, Wycliffe was summoned before a synod at Oxford. He still commanded the favour of the court and of Parliament, to which he addressed a memorial. In 1383 he

4180-433: The beginning and again near the end, a king of Witchland dies, Carcë is attacked, and Gorice XII carries out a conjuring in the fortress's Iron Tower. There are two quests to find and recover Goldry Bluszco. Three armies, under the influence of an enchantment, chase each other in an endless campaign until the heroes shatter the cycle on their quest. The Worm Ouroboros is often compared with J. R. R. Tolkien 's The Lord of

4275-605: The bottom of a lake in Demonland. Meanwhile, the armies of Witchland have attacked Demonland. Duke Corsus is the first commander of the Witchland army, and conquers part of Demonland, but is defeated by Spitfire. A new Witchland army, under the command of Lord Corinius, defeats Spitfire and captures most of Demonland, including Brandoch Daha's castle of Krothering, which had been watched over by his sister Lady Mevrian. At this point, Lord Gro changes sides and helps Lady Mevrian escape from

4370-446: The calcified skin to eat their prey's fleshy innards. SCP-1013 reproduce from growths budding off of the tail of a well-fed adult. The story SCP-1013 - Cockatrice won fourth place in the site's SCP-1000 Contest, a contest that prefaced the opening of the site's second series. A cockatrice is shown as the main antagonist in the first episode of Netflix's anime adaptation of Little Witch Academia (2017), "Starting Over". The cockatrice

4465-552: The capital of the Witches, where they think Goldry is held. The rescue fails, the Goblins flee, and Juss and Brandoch Daha are both captured. They escape with the aid of La Fireez, the prince of Pixyland and vassal of King Gorice, who helps them at great personal cost because he owes them a debt of honor. Juss and Brandoch Daha return home to Demonland and then start an expedition to rescue Goldry Bluszco from his terrible prison, somewhere past

4560-425: The church, and at the entrance, party animosities began to show, especially in an angry exchange between the bishop and Wycliffe's protectors over whether Wycliffe should sit. Gaunt declared that he would humble the pride of the English clergy and their partisans, hinting at the intent to secularise the possessions of the Church. The assembly broke up and Gaunt and his partisans departed with their protégé . Most of

4655-524: The common man in a fight against evil and C. S. Lewis 's Christian allegory . The Demon lords hold to the Old Norse warrior ethic of loyalty and glory. The leaders of Witchland are regarded as noble and worthy opponents; in the final chapter, Goldry Bluszco compares them very favorably with the "uncivil races" of Impland. New York Times critic Edwin Clark praised the novel lavishly, saying "This romance has

4750-459: The condition and prospects of the human race". In September 1351, Wycliffe became a priest. Wycliffe would have been at Oxford during the St Scholastica Day riot , in which sixty-three students and a number of townspeople were killed. In 1356, Wycliffe completed his bachelor of arts degree at Merton College as a junior fellow. That same year he produced a small treatise, The Last Age of

4845-460: The consultations on 21 May an earthquake occurred. The participants were terrified and wished to break up the assembly, but Courtenay declared the earthquake a favourable sign, which meant the purification of the earth from erroneous doctrine, and the result of the " Earthquake Synod " was assured. Of the 24 propositions attributed to Wycliffe without mentioning his name, ten were declared heretical and fourteen erroneous. The former had reference to

SECTION 50

#1732851492045

4940-416: The death-darting eye of cockatrice. Nathan Field , in the first scene of his play The Honest Man's Fortune (1647), also uses the idea that a cockatrice could kill with its eyes: ... never threaten with your eyes, they are no cockatrice's ... In Second Nephi 24:29, a Cockatrice is mentioned. In E. R. Eddison 's high fantasy novel The Worm Ouroboros (1922), Chapter 4 has King Gorice show

5035-534: The eggs of the ibis were regularly destroyed for fear that the venom of the snakes they consumed would cause a hybrid snake-bird to hatch. It is thought that a cock egg would hatch out as a cockatrice, and this could be prevented by tossing the egg over the family house, landing on the other side of the house, without allowing the egg to hit the house. The cockatrice has the reputed ability to kill people by either looking at them—"the death-darting eye of Cockatrice" —touching them, or sometimes breathing on them. It

5130-416: The enclosures were 18 theses of his, which were denounced as erroneous and dangerous to Church and State: all were drawn from De Civili dominio . Stephen Lahey suggests that Gregory's action against Wycliffe was an attempt to put pressure on King Edward to make peace with France. Edward III died on 21 June 1377, and the bull against Wycliffe did not reach England before December. Wycliffe was asked to give

5225-559: The entire case, in such a way that it was understood by the laity. In it he demanded that it should be legal for the excommunicated to appeal to the king and his council against the excommunication: the state should be able to override the church. Some ordinary citizens, some of the nobility, and his former protector, John of Gaunt, rallied to him. Before any further steps could be taken in Rome, Gregory XI died in 1378. The attacks on Pope Gregory XI grew ever more extreme. Wycliffe's stand concerning

5320-416: The even more difficult peak of Koshtra Belorn. Before reaching the summit of Koshtra Belorn they encounter Queen Sophonisba, a royal from that area to whom the gods have granted eternal youth. From Sophonisba they learn that Goldry is held in prison on the top of Zora Rach Nam, a mountain which cannot be climbed and whose peak is surrounded by unceasing flames. There is only one way to free him: they must find

5415-542: The gaudiness and flair of the Elizabethans. It has the exuberance of great appetites and vigorous living. It transcends all ordinary life. It burns with the wonder and awe of excess." But Clark also noted that Eddison "is stylistic in the grand and heroic manner that evokes beauty and vigorous life, but it seems to us that without injury to his verbal charm or loss of beauty in his passage of atmosphere saturated with glamour of nature, he could have removed much that would quicken

5510-478: The grasp of Corinius, who wishes to marry her against her will. A few months later, Lord Juss and Brandoch Daha return and expel the Witches from Demonland. Equipped with a new hippogriff egg, Lord Juss makes a successful second attempt to rescue his brother. However, his forces are trapped in an inland sea by the Witchland navy. Forced to engage in battle directly, they completely destroy that navy. La Fireez dies in this battle. The Demons then sail to Carcë and face

5605-533: The ideal of poverty became continually firmer, as well as his position with regard to the temporal rule of the clergy. Closely related to this attitude was his book De officio regis , the content of which was foreshadowed in his 33 conclusions. This book, like those that preceded and followed, was concerned with the reform of the Church, in which the temporal arm was to have an influential part. From 1380 onwards, Wycliffe devoted himself to writings that argued his rejection of transubstantiation , and strongly criticised

5700-457: The ideas of a 10-year-old boy and the work of a 40-year-old man. Perhaps the most interesting change is in Lord Gro's character. In the drawings Lord Gro is a hero of skill and courage, while in the book he is a conflicted character, never able to pick a side and stick to it. Another curious change is that Goldry Bluszco is the main hero of the drawings, but off-stage in an enchanted prison for most of

5795-511: The king's council his opinion on whether it was lawful to withhold traditional payments to Rome, and he responded that it was. Back at Oxford, the Vice-Chancellor confined Wycliffe for some time in Black Hall, but his friends soon obtained his release. In March 1378, Wycliffe was summoned to appear at Lambeth Palace to defend himself. However, Sir Lewis Clifford entered the chapel and in

SECTION 60

#1732851492045

5890-417: The legs of a cock; and a cock's head it had, with rosy comb and wattles, but the face of it like no fowl's face of middle-earth but rather a gorgon's out of Hell. Black shining feathers grew on its neck, but the body of it was the body of a dragon with scales that glittered in the rays of the candles, and a scaly crest stood on its back; and its wings were like bats' wings, and its tail the tail of an aspick with

5985-415: The mountains of Impland. Lord Spitfire again stays behind to lead Demonland's armies against an expected invasion from Witchland. The expedition's fleet is smashed and its army destroyed. Juss and Brandoch Daha meet with three strange enchanted heroes of an earlier time, and Juss is later nearly killed by a manticore . After a year of wandering they climb the mighty peak of Koshtra Pivrarcha and then attempt

6080-464: The name of the queen mother ( Joan of Kent ), forbade the bishops to proceed to a definite sentence concerning Wycliffe's conduct or opinions. Wycliffe wrote a letter expressing and defending his less "obnoxious doctrines". The bishops, who were divided, satisfied themselves with forbidding him to speak further on the controversy. Wycliffe then wrote his De incarcerandis fedelibus , with 33 conclusions in Latin and English. In this writing he laid open

6175-504: The novel. Many people (including J. R. R. Tolkien ) have wondered at and criticized Eddison's curious names for his characters (e.g. La Fireez, Fax Fay Faz), places and nations. According to Thomas, the answer appears to be that these names originated in the mind of a young boy, and Eddison could not, or would not, change them thirty years later when he wrote the stories down. The title refers to Ouroboros ( Jörmungandr in Norse mythology ),

6270-498: The parish church to prevent disputation. The preachers didn't limit their criticism of the accumulation of wealth and property to that of the monasteries, but included secular properties belonging to the nobility. Although Wycliffe disapproved of the revolt, some of his disciples justified the killing of Simon Sudbury , Archbishop of Canterbury. In 1382, Wycliffe's old enemy William Courtenay , now Archbishop of Canterbury, called an ecclesiastical assembly of notables at London. During

6365-474: The pope or the ecclesiastical authorities of the land, but to the king. He published his great confession upon the subject, and a second writing in English intended for the common people. As long as Wycliffe limited his attacks to abuses and the wealth of the Church, he could rely on the support of part of the clergy and aristocracy, but once he dismissed the traditional doctrine of transubstantiation , his theses could not be defended any more. This view cost him

6460-462: The post at Fillingham. In 1365, his performance led Simon Islip , Archbishop of Canterbury , to place him at the head of Canterbury Hall , where twelve young men were preparing for the priesthood. In December 1365, Islip appointed Wycliffe as warden, but when Islip died in 1366, his successor, Simon Langham , a man of monastic training, turned the leadership of the college over to a monk. In 1367, Wycliffe appealed to Rome. In 1371, Wycliffe's appeal

6555-621: The project was due to his leadership. For the initial Early Version (EV), the rendering of the Old Testament is attributed to his friend Nicholas of Hereford ; the rendering of some of the New Testament has been traditionally attributed to Wycliffe. The whole was revised perhaps by Wycliffe's younger contemporary John Purvey in 1388, known as the Late Version (LV). Linguistic analysis, however, suggests there were multiple translators for both EV and LV translations. There still exist over 200 manuscripts, complete or partial, mainly containing

6650-407: The remaining forces of Witchland in a climactic struggle. In the battle, Lord Gro is lambasted by Corund for switching sides; Gro responds by killing a Demon and is himself killed by Spitfire. Corund dies from wounds he suffers fighting with the heroes of Demonland. His armies having failed, King Gorice attempts another terrible summoning; lacking the aid of Gro, he is unable to complete the spell and

6745-669: The representatives of Gregory XI a number of points in dispute between the king and the pope. He was no longer satisfied with his chair as the means of propagating his ideas, and soon after his return from Bruges he began to express them in tracts and longer works. In a book concerned with the government of God and the Ten Commandments , he attacked the temporal rule of the clergy, the collection of annates , indulgences , and simony . According to Benedictine historian Francis Aidan Gasquet , at least some of Wycliffe's program should be seen as (naive) "attempts at social reconstruction" in

6840-499: The same species, or at least able to intermarry ( e.g. , Goldry Bluszco and Princess Armelline, Lord Corund and Lady Prezmyra). Witchland, Demonland, and others appear to be country names, like England and France. When first presented, the Demons are seen to have horns on their heads, but these horns are not mentioned again, nor is it said whether the other peoples have horns. Research done by Paul Edmund Thomas (who wrote an introduction to

6935-442: The scriptures as the only reliable guide to the truth about God, and maintained that all Christians should rely on the Bible rather than on the teachings of popes and clerics. He said that there was no scriptural justification for the papacy. Theologically, his preaching expressed a strong belief in predestination that enabled him to declare an " invisible church of the elect ", made up of those predestined to be saved, rather than in

7030-466: The second chapter. Having introduced the chief lords of Demonland—the brothers Juss, Spitfire, and Goldry Bluszco, and their cousin Brandoch Daha—the story begins in earnest with a dwarf ambassador from Witchland arriving in Demonland to demand that the Demons recognize King Gorice XI of Witchland as their overlord. Juss and his brothers reply that they and all of Demonland will submit if the king,

7125-517: The snake or dragon that swallows its own tail and therefore has no terminus (in Old English, the word "worm" could mean a serpent or dragon). Like the Ouroboros, the story ends at the same place as it begins, when the heroes realize that their lives have little meaning without the great conflict and wish that it could continue, and their wish is granted. The theme of repetition pervades the work. Near

7220-471: The splendid prose and gorgeous artifice appropriate to his sagas." In 1973, Ursula K. Le Guin wrote about the beauty of the language, and the consistency of the archaic style Eddison employed. She writes that one of the goals of fantasy is to create a sense of distance from the ordinary and that “The archaic manner is indeed a perfect distancer, but you have to do it perfectly.  It is a high wire: one slip spoils all. The man who did it perfectly of course

7315-462: The support of John of Gaunt and many others. In the midst of this came the Peasants' Revolt of 1381 . The revolt was sparked in part by Wycliffe's preaching, carried throughout the realm by "poor priests" or "poor preachers" appointed by Wycliffe, and mostly laymen. A contemporary record claims local sympathetic knights would force local people to hear the preaching, sometimes acting as armed guards in

7410-577: The supremacy of the king over the priesthood. He also rejected the selling of indulgences . The battle against what he saw as an imperialised papacy and its supporters, the "sects", as he called the monastic orders, takes up a large space not only in his later works, such as the Trialogus , Dialogus , Opus evangelicum , and in his sermons, but also in a series of sharp tracts and polemical productions in Latin and English (of which those issued in his later years have been collected as "Polemical Writings"). The Worm Ouroboros The Worm Ouroboros

7505-401: The tasks of the 1792 Triwizard Tournament escaped and injured the headmasters of the three participating schools, an incident cited as the cause for the cancellation of Triwizard Tournaments until 1994. Some translations instead state the cockatrice to be a basilisk or an "occamy", an in-universe relative of the snallygaster . Additionally, heraldry of a white cockatrice holding a broomstick on

7600-610: The teachings of Wycliffe. The bull of Gregory XI impressed upon them the name of Lollards , intended as an opprobrious epithet, but it became, to them, a name of honour. Even in Wycliffe's time the "Lollards" had reached wide circles in England and preached "God's law, without which no one could be justified." Furthermore, not all anti-clerical people were Lollards, not all Lollards were Wycliffites, and not all productions attributed to Wycliffites were anti-Catholic, despite later conflation. In

7695-473: The transformation in the sacrament, the latter to matters of church order and institutions. It was forbidden from that time to hold these opinions or to advance them in sermons or in academic discussions. All persons disregarding this order were to be subject to prosecution. To accomplish this, the help of the State was necessary, but the Commons rejected the bill. The king, however, had a decree issued which permitted

7790-574: The translation in its LV form. From this, it is possible to infer that texts were widely diffused in the 15th century. For this reason, the Wycliffites in England were often designated by their opponents as "Bible men"; it has been noted, however, that the vocabulary in English Wycliffite sermons doesn't typically match that found in the EV or LV. Historian S. Harrison Thomson notes that Wycliff's theology

7885-468: The years before his death in 1384 he increasingly argued for Scriptures as the authoritative centre of Christianity, that the claims of the papacy were unhistorical, that monasticism was irredeemably corrupt, and that the moral unworthiness of priests invalidated their office and sacraments . Wycliffe returned to Lutterworth . From there he sent out tracts against the monks and Pope Urban VI . Urban VI, contrary to Wycliffe's hopes, had not turned out to be

7980-573: Was Master of Balliol College . That year he was presented by the college to the parish of Fillingham in Lincolnshire , which he visited rarely during long vacations from Oxford. For this he had to give up the headship of Balliol College, though he could continue to live at Oxford. He is said to have had rooms in the buildings of The Queen's College . In 1362, he was granted a prebend at Aust in Westbury-on-Trym , which he held in addition to

8075-425: Was Eddison... If you love language for its own sake he is irresistible." Le Guin continues, "The prose, in spite of or because of its anachronism, is good prose: exact, clear, powerful. Visually it is precise and vivid; musically – that is, in the sound of the words, the movement of the syntax, the rhythm of the sentences – it is subtle and very strong." In 1983, E. F. Bleiler praised The Worm Ouroboros as "still

8170-559: Was an English scholastic philosopher , Christian reformer, Catholic priest , and a theology professor at the University of Oxford . Wycliffe is traditionally believed to have advocated or made a vernacular translation of the Vulgate Bible into Middle English , though more recent scholarship has minimalized the extent of his advocacy or involvement for lack of direct contemporary evidence. He became an influential dissident within

8265-557: Was based on a reference in Pliny's Natural History that the ichneumon lay in wait for the crocodile to open its jaws for the trochilus bird to enter and pick its teeth clean. An extended description of the cocatriz by the 15th-century Spanish traveller in Egypt, Pedro Tafur , makes it clear that this refers to the Nile crocodile . According to Alexander Neckam 's De naturis rerum (ca 1180),

8360-411: Was decided and the outcome was unfavourable to him. The incident was typical of the ongoing rivalry between monks or friars and secular clergy at Oxford at this time. In 1368, he gave up his living at Fillingham and took over the rectory of Ludgershall, Buckinghamshire , not far from Oxford, which enabled him to retain his connection with the university. Tradition has it that he began his translation of

8455-409: Was illustrated by Keith Henderson , who also illustrated books by Geoffrey Chaucer and W. H. Hudson . The novel begins with a framing story in which a character named Lessingham travels from Earth to Mercury . Eddison's Mercury, though, is a fantasy world, with no effort made to conform to the scientific knowledge of Mercury at the time. Lessingham and the framing story are not seen again after

8550-639: Was of unblemished walk in life, and regarded affectionately by people of rank, who often consorted with him, took down his sayings, and clung to him. "I indeed clove to none closer than to him, the wisest and most blessed of all men whom I have ever found." Wycliffe is said to have written about two hundred works in Latin and Middle English . There are few experts in 14th-century scholastic Latin, and many of Wycliffe's Latin works have not been translated into English, which has limited their study by historians. His theological and political works include numerous books and tracts: Most historians hold that few to none of

8645-461: Was on a broader canvas than the continental reformation: however of the major Protestant notes, he certainly advocated "the supremacy of scripture over tradition", however it is difficult to find justification by faith alone or the priesthood of all believers espoused in his works. No reformer adopted his view that every verse in Scripture was in some way literally true. Wycliffe had come to regard

8740-470: Was repeated in the late-medieval bestiaries that the weasel is the only animal that is immune to the glance of a cockatrice. It was also thought that a cockatrice would die instantly upon hearing a rooster crow, and according to legend, having a cockatrice look at itself in a mirror is one of the few sure-fire ways to kill it. The first use of the word in English was in John Wyclif 's 1382 translation of

8835-471: Was summoned before William Courtenay , Bishop of London , on 19 February 1377. The exact charges are not known, as the matter did not get as far as a definite examination. Lechler suggests that Wycliffe was targeted by John of Gaunt 's opponents among the nobles and church hierarchy. Gaunt, the Earl Marshal Henry Percy , and a number of other supporters accompanied Wycliffe. A crowd gathered at

8930-449: Was summonsed to Rome, but he suffered a debilitating stroke and was excused from travel. He was neither excommunicated then, nor deprived of his living. Wycliffe aimed to do away with the existing hierarchy and replace it with the "poor priests" who lived in poverty, were bound by no vows, had received no formal consecration , and preached the Gospel to the people. Itinerant preachers spread

9025-411: Was the only authoritative reliable guide to the truth about God, he is said to have become involved in efforts to translate the Bible into English. However, while Wycliffe is popularly credited, it is not possible exactly to define his part, if any, in the translations, which were based on the Vulgate . In common belief from only decades after the translations, it was his initiative, and the success of

#44955