Together with Jan Hus, John Wycliffe is considered two of the most important pioneering figures in the run-up to the Reformation. A brilliant Oxford theologian and catholic rector, Wycliffe was one of the earliest churchmen to criticize the church for its abuse and to call for its reform, and especially for the Bible to made available to all and sundry.
John Wycliffe studied at Oxford and was associated with the university as a lecturer for most of his life. His pro-government view gained him support from John of Gaunt, the third son of King Edward III and effective ruler while Richard II was in his minority. Wycliffe was highly critical of abuses in the church as he saw it, and advocated the seizure by the government of the properties of immoral clerics. His criticism extended also to the indulgences and the concept of transubstantiation and taught a doctrine of "real presence" instead. Most of all, he held that the Bible should be the sole authority in matters of faith and practice. With his encouragement his followers—abusively called Lollards (i.e., "mumblers who talked nonsense") by their enemies—produced an English translation of the Vulgate in 1384, and a second version in 1396. For these Wycliffe is often called "the Morning Star of the Reformation." For these too his teachings were condemned as heretical by the pope in 1377. He died of a stroke in 1384.
Lollardy, however, failed to gain a wide following in England, but Czech students studying at Oxford (encouraged by the close diplomatic ties between the two nations as a result of Richard II's marriage to Anne of Bohemia) took his ideas back to Prague, where his teachings greatly influenced the Bohemian reformer Jan Hus and his followers. Hus was condemned and burned at the stake in 1415 by the Council of Constance. In a raw vindictive display of power and hatred, Wycliffe's corpse was ordered exhumed, burnt and the ashes cast into the River Swift in 1428.
Media Resources:
W. Robert Godfrey, A Survey of Church History, Part 25. Forerunners of the Reformation. 23.45 mins. Ligonier.org. This is one of 72 lectures.
Audio/Video N (Open on Phone)
Further Reading & Resources:
Christian History Issue 3 (1983). Christian History Institute. This issue is devoted to Zenzendorf.
Pdf N 5 (Open on Phone)
F.F. Bruce, "John Wycliffe and the English Bible," Churchman 98.4 (1984): 294-306. pdf
Gillian R. Evans, "Wycliffe the academic: the old and the new," Churchman 98.4 (1984): 307-318. pdf
Gordon Leff, "John Wycliffe's Religious Doctrines," Churchman 98.4 (1984): 319-328. pdf
Anne Hudson, The Premature Reformation: Wycliffe Texts and Lollard History. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1988.
Anthony Kenny, Wycliffe. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1985.
Heiko Oberman, Forerunners of the Reformation: The Shape of Late Medieval Thought. Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1981.>
G. H. W. Parker, The Morning Star: Wycliffe and the Dawn of the Reformation. Grand Rapids: 1965.
©ALBERITH
180917lch