Longer excerpts the Scriptorium holds on screen for a player to sit and read, word for word.
from On the Truth of Holy Scripture“Nothing is to be believed that is not founded upon this book, and to its teachings nothing is to be added.”
Wyclif, De Veritate Sacrae Scripturae, as summarised in Philip Schaff, History of the Christian Church VI § 41 (public domain).
from On the Truth of Holy Scripture“Logic, as in Oxford, changes very frequently, yea, every twenty years, but the Scriptures are yea, yea and nay, nay. They never change. They stand to eternity.”
Wyclif, De Veritate Sacrae Scripturae, as summarised in Philip Schaff, History of the Christian Church VI § 41 (public domain).
from On the Truth of Holy Scripture“For if I say, This is my hand, and if it be not a hand, then am I a liar…”
Wyclif, sermon on Matthew 26:26, in Grenville Kleiser, The World’s Great Sermons I (1908, public domain). (trimmed quote)
from On the Truth of Holy Scripture“They said it in Wyclif’s day, and the hypocrites say now, that God’s Word arouseth insurrection.”
Tyndale, quoted in Philip Schaff, History of the Christian Church VI § 40 (public domain).
Moves these books can learn whose quotation comes from somebody else. The citation on each one names who actually said it.
“For if I say, This is my hand, and if it be not a hand, then am I a liar…”
Wyclif, sermon on Matthew 26:26, in Grenville Kleiser, The World’s Great Sermons I (1908, public domain). (trimmed quote)public domain
In the gameWords mean what they would mean in a mouth. Wyclif will not let a sentence do something in church that it could not do at a table.
Learned byOn the Truth of Holy Scripture (Lv 1)
“Nothing is to be believed that is not founded upon this book, and to its teachings nothing is to be added.”
Wyclif, De Veritate Sacrae Scripturae, as summarised in Philip Schaff, History of the Christian Church VI § 41 (public domain).public domain
In the gameThe rule Wyclif argued for a century and a half before anyone called it sola scriptura, and the rule this whole game is played by.
Learned byOn the Truth of Holy Scripture (Lv 8)
If nothing may be believed but what stands in the book, then everyone who must believe has to be able to reach the book.
“For in him we live, and move, and have our being. As some of your own poets have said.”
Acts 17:28 (WEB) — Paul at the Areopagus, quoting the Athenians’ own poets back to them.
In the gamePick the part of the opponent’s case that is true and affirm it. That point can no longer be used against you, and the opponent’s Defend falls sharply. It deals no damage. Affirm something false and you have only agreed with an error.
Learned byOn the Truth of Holy Scripture (Lv 10)
“They said it in Wyclif’s day, and the hypocrites say now, that God’s Word arouseth insurrection.”
Tyndale, quoted in Philip Schaff, History of the Christian Church VI § 40 (public domain).public domain
In the gameThe oldest reason given for keeping the Bible out of ordinary hands: that people who read it will not stay quiet. Tyndale had heard it too, and answered it by naming it.
Learned byOn the Truth of Holy Scripture (Lv 14)
Name the real reason and it stops sounding like care for the reader. Tyndale heard the same sentence a hundred and fifty years later and said so.
“Logic, as in Oxford, changes very frequently, yea, every twenty years, but the Scriptures are yea, yea and nay, nay. They never change. They stand to eternity.”
Wyclif, De Veritate Sacrae Scripturae, as summarised in Philip Schaff, History of the Christian Church VI § 41 (public domain).public domain
In the gameSchools change their minds every twenty years. The text does not. Whatever is settled by a fashion can be unsettled by the next one.
Learned byOn the Truth of Holy Scripture (Lv 20)
A council can reverse a council, and this one did. The text it was condemning has not moved.
Schools change their minds every twenty years, and the text does not. A meaning that could be put off for ever would have moved by now. Nobody in the history of the church has read John 3:16 as a recipe.
“Wherever we see the word of God sincerely preached and heard, wherever we see the sacraments administered according to the institution of Christ, there we cannot have any doubt that the Church of God has some existence, since his promise cannot fail.”
Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion IV.1.9 (trans. Beveridge, 1845), public domain.public domain
In the gameRefuses to produce a lineage, because a lineage was never the test. Look for preaching and sacraments; where you find them you have found the church, and where you do not, a list of bishops will not supply one.
Learned byOn the Truth of Holy Scripture (Lv 28)
It does not produce a lineage. It changes what would count as one — and the church turns out to have been in a great many buildings that were flying his flag.
Refuses to produce a lineage, because a lineage was never the test.
Where the Word is preached and heard, there is a church. That is the test, and a decree is not it.
A definition of the church, aimed at a market stall. True, and nowhere near it.
John Wyclif against everyone else in the game.
