John Wycliffe

John Wycliffe was born around 1328, in the village of Hipswell, near Richmond, in Yorkshire, England. His family was of the minor gentry. He went to Oxford as a young man, and he became a student at Balliol College. He was a brilliant scholar, who studied philosophy and theology. He took his doctorate in theology around 1372. He was known as the leading philosopher of his time at Oxford, and he served as master of Balliol for a period. He was also ordained as a priest and held a number of church positions, which provided his income.

In the 1370s, he came into conflict with the church. He was drawn into politics and was employed by the king, Edward III, and the royal family, particularly John of Gaunt, the Duke of Lancaster. The crown was at odds with the pope over the matter of taxes and the appointment of bishops. Wycliffe took the side of the crown and argued that the state had the right to take property from a church that misused it. In 1376, he developed his ideas in a work, On Civil Dominion, in which he argued that the right to rule and to own property rested on grace, and that a priest in mortal sin lost his rights. This view threatened the whole structure of the church.

In 1377, Pope Gregory XI issued a bull condemning a number of his propositions. He was summoned before the bishop of London, but the hearing broke up in a riot. He was protected by John of Gaunt. He went on to develop his teaching. He maintained that the Bible is the sole authority for the faith of the church, and that every Christian has the right to read it for himself. He denied the doctrine of transubstantiation, the teaching that the bread and wine in the mass become the actual body and blood of Christ. He criticized the wealth of the clergy, the sale of indulgences and the power of the pope. He said that the church should live in poverty, like the first disciples.

He is most famous for the translation of the Bible into English. In the 1380s, he and his followers produced the first complete English Bible. It was translated from the Latin Vulgate, since he did not know Greek or Hebrew, and it was copied by hand, since printing had not yet been invented. It was circulated widely, in spite of efforts to suppress it. He believed that the people should have the Scriptures in their own language. The translation was largely the work of his associates, among them Nicholas of Hereford and John Purvey. It had a great influence on the English language.

He sent out a group of poor preachers, known as Lollards, to travel the country and to preach the gospel in English. They wore plain clothes and carried staffs. They preached against the abuses of the church and spread his teaching among the people. The movement grew, and it survived the death of its founder. It prepared the ground for the Reformation of the sixteenth century.

He was condemned by a church council in London in 1382, called the Earthquake Council, because an earthquake occurred during the meeting. Twenty-four of his propositions were declared heretical or erroneous. He was forced to leave Oxford. He retired to the parish of Lutterworth, in Leicestershire, where he spent the last two years of his life. He continued to write and to teach. He suffered a stroke in 1384 while celebrating mass, and he died on December 31, 1384.

His opponents could not forgive him. In 1415, the Council of Constance condemned him as a heretic, and in 1428, by order of the pope, his bones were dug up and burned, and the ashes were thrown into the river Swift. It was said that the river carried them to the Severn, and to the sea, and so his teaching was spread across the world. His life shows how a scholar in a quiet place may begin a movement that changes a nation.