IMC 2006: Sessions

Abstract paper -a: Little is said today about Wyclif's idiosyncratic theory of time, yet its underlying principles formed the necessary premises of his contested claims about the 'literal' truth of scriptural writings. It became a matter of heated intellectual debate between himself and the contemporary Carmelite scholar, John Kenningham. Without it, as Wyclif claims in the Logicae continuatio, the true sense of scriptural propositions could not adequately be defended. It was his theory of temporal 'ampliation' (ampliatio temporis)
that created particular problems for Wyclif's opponents. It enabled him to resolve apparent temporal anomalies in the Vulgate text, and hence to sustain his strong literalist hermeneutic. This convenient theory, however, rested crucially upon a systematic misreading of Augustine, of late-medieval Aristotelian thinking, and of the logical metalanguage of terminist philosophy. This systematic distortion of logical and metaphysical teaching was evident even before Wyclif turned his attention to systematic biblical exegesis, or to the production of a biblical commentary. This paper will serve as a preliminary investigation into the early stages of Wyclif's thinking on the relationship between time and eternity, and will trace these forward into his later biblical writings (the Postilla and the De veritate Sacrae Scripturae).

Abstract paper -b: This paper examines the complex milieu in which William Tyndale began his vernacular translation of scripture. Many scholars have relied too heavily on the portrayal of Tyndale in John Foxe's Actes and Monuments and have attempted to explain him with reference to a strict dichotomy between Protestantism and Catholicism. I argue that Tyndale conceived his project as a humanist one in an environment not yet polarized between two hostile camps. Through a careful reconstruction of his biography through the mid 1520s and an analysis of his earliest writings, my research reveals the shortcomings of the existing historiography.

Abstract paper -c: The word order S + V + DO + IO is exceptional in Modern English. Kirk (1985) presumes that this type of word order evolved from the word order S + V + DO + prp O. Kirk tries to support the view of its evolution by examining the same passage in a number of different English versions of the Bible:

a) 1000 fæder syle me (DATIVE) minne dæl minre æhta
b) 1400 fadir зyue to me the porcioun of substaunce
c) 1611 father giue me the portion of goods
d) 1961 father give me my share of the property (Kirk, 1985, p. 134)

The one translated in c. 1400 is probably the version compiled by Wycliffe. There are two versions associated with Wycliffe. I have collected all the sentences with give or show from the four Gospels in the early and late versions of Wycliffe and will show that the matter is more complex than Kirk suggests.