John Wycliffe

== Life and career ==

=== Early life ===

Wycliffe was born in the village of [[Hipswell]] near [[Richmond, North Yorkshire|Richmond]] in the [[North Riding of Yorkshire]], England, around the 1320s. He has conventionally been given a birth date of 1324 but Hudson and Kenny state only records "suggest he was born in the mid-1320s".<ref>{{ citation |title=Dictionary of National Biography |publisher=Oxford }}</ref> Conti states that he was born "before 1331".<ref name="Conti">{{ cite web |last=Conti |first=Alessandro |title=John Wyclif |url=https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/wyclif/ |access-date=3 June 2019 |website=[[Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy]] }}</ref>

Wycliffe received his early education close to his home.<ref>{{ citation |last=Dallmann |first=W. |title=Concordia Theological Quarterly |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IxsRAAAAIAAJ |volume=XI |page=41 |year=1907 |place=St. Louis}}.</ref> It is unknown when he first came to [[University of Oxford|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 the Cause of God against the [[Pelagianism|Pelagians]]'', a bold recovery of the Pauline–Augustinian doctrine of grace, would greatly shape young Wycliffe's views,<ref>{{ cite web |last=Calhoun |first=David B. |title=The Morning Star of the Reformation |url=http://www.cslewisinstitute.org/John_Wycliffe_page1 |publisher=CS Lewis institute}}.</ref> as did the [[Black Death]] which reached England in the summer of 1348.<ref name="Murray">{{ cite web |last=Murray |first=Thomas |date=26 October 1829 |title=The Life of John Wycliffe |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FsIEAAAAYAAJ&q=john+wycliffe |access-date=26 October 2019 |publisher=John Boyd |via=Google Books }}</ref> 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 the condition and prospects of the human race".<ref name="Vaughn">{{ cite book |last=Vaughan |first=Robert |date=26 October 1845 |title=Tracts and Treatises of John de Wycliffe: With Selections and Translations from His Manuscripts and Latin Works |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Hxi_RhgjHU8C&q=john+wycliffe |access-date=26 October 2019 |publisher=Society |isbn=978-0790561592 |via=Google Books }}</ref> In September of 1351, Wycliffe became a priest.{{sfn|Lahey|2009|p=5}} Wycliffe would have been at Oxford during the [[St Scholastica Day riot]] in which sixty-three students and a number of townspeople were killed.

=== Career in education ===

Wycliffe completed his arts degree at [[Merton College, Oxford|Merton College]] as a junior fellow in 1356.<ref>Davison, Jon (1995). ''Oxford – Images & Recollections'', p. 261. {{ISBN|1-86982499-7}}.</ref> That same year he produced a small treatise, ''The Last Age of the Church''. In the light of the virulence of the plague that 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.<ref name=Murray/>

He was [[Master (college)|Master]] of [[Balliol College, Oxford|Balliol College]] in 1361.<ref>{{ cite web |title=Archives & Manuscripts |url=http://archives.balliol.ox.ac.uk/History/masters.asp |access-date=22 August 2009 |publisher=Balliol College |place=Oxford }}</ref> In this same year, he was presented by the college to the parish of [[Fillingham]] in [[Lincolnshire]], which he visited rarely during long vacations from Oxford.<ref name=Estep/> 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, Oxford|The Queen's College]]. In 1362 he was granted a [[prebendary|prebend]] at [[Aust]] in [[Westbury on Trym, Bristol|Westbury-on-Trym]], which he held in addition to the post at Fillingham.

His performance led [[Simon Islip]], [[Archbishop of Canterbury]], to place him in 1365 at the head of [[Canterbury Hall]], where twelve young men were preparing for the priesthood. In December 1365 Islip appointed Wycliffe as warden<ref name=Budd/> but when Islip died the following year 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 was decided and the outcome was unfavourable to him. The incident was typical of the ongoing rivalry between monks and secular clergy at Oxford at this time.<ref name="Estep">{{ cite book |last=Estep |first=William Roscoe |year= 1986 |title=Renaissance and Reformation |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dUENoh0ey4QC&q=john+wycliffe&pg=PA59 |access-date=26 October 2019 |publisher=Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing |isbn=978-0802800503 |via=Google Books }}</ref>

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 commenced his translation of the Bible into English whilst sitting in a room above what is now the porch in Ludgershall Church.<ref>{{cite web |title=John Wycliffe in Ludgershall |url=https://ludgershall.files.wordpress.com/2011/09/history-of-ludgershall-part-4.pdf}}</ref> In 1369 Wycliffe obtained a bachelor's degree in theology, and his doctorate in 1372.<ref name="Roberts">{{ cite web |title=John Wycliffe and the Dawn of the Reformation |url=https://www.christianitytoday.com/history/issues/issue-3/john-wycliffe-and-dawn-of-reformation.html |access-date=26 October 2019 |website=Christian History &#124; Learn the History of Christianity & the Church }}</ref>  In 1374, he received the crown living of [[St Mary's Church, Lutterworth]] in [[Leicestershire]],<ref name="Urquhart">[http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/15722a.htm Urquhart, Francis. "John Wyclif." ''The Catholic Encyclopedia''] Vol. 15. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1912. 28 July 2015</ref> which he retained until his death.

=== Politics ===
[[File:WycliffeYeamesLollards 01.jpg|thumb|upright=1.4|''Wyclif Giving '[[Lollard|The Poor Priests]]' His Translation of the Bible'' by [[William Frederick Yeames]], published before 1923.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Stone |first1=Larry |title=The Story of the Bible: The Fascinating History of Its Writing, Translation and Effect on Civilization |date=11 December 2012 |publisher=Thomas Nelson |isbn=978-1-59555-433-8 |page=83 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XeHJooF4E4YC |language=en}}</ref>]]

In 1374 his name appears second, after a bishop, on a commission which the English Government sent to [[Bruges]] to discuss with the representatives of [[Gregory XI]] a number of points in dispute between the king and the pope.<ref name=Urquhart/> 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]], [[indulgence]]s, and [[simony]].

====''De civili dominio''====
He 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.<ref name="burns">{{ cite book |last1=Burns |first1=J. H. |title=The Cambridge History of Medieval Political Thought c. 350–c. 1450 |date= 1988 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-1139055390 |pages=644–649 }}</ref> This called for the royal divestment of all church property.<ref name="Lahey">{{ cite book |last=Lahey |first=Stephen Edmund |date= 2008 |title=John Wyclif |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=B_jKb_rjQQIC&q=john+wycliffe |access-date=26 October 2019 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0199720286 |via=Google Books }}</ref>

=====Conflicts with Church, State and University=====

His ideas on lordship and church wealth caused his first official condemnation in 1377 by Pope Gregory XI, who censured 19 articles. Wycliffe argued that the Church had fallen into sin and that it ought therefore to give up all its property and that the clergy should live in complete 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 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.<ref name="Lechler">{{ Cite book |last=Lechler |first=Gotthard Victor |date=26 October 1904 |title=John Wycliffe and His English Precursors |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZHIJAQAAIAAJ&q=john+wycliffe |access-date=26 October 2019 |publisher=Religious Tract Society |isbn=9780404162351 |via=Google Books }}</ref> Gaunt, the [[Earl Marshal]] [[Henry Percy, 1st Earl of Northumberland|Henry Percy]], and a number of other supporters accompanied Wycliffe. A crowd gathered at the church, and at the entrance, party animosities began to show, especially in an angry exchange between the bishop and Wycliffe's protectors.<ref name=Urquhart/> 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]].<ref>An excellent account of this dispute between the bishop and the protectors of Wycliffe is given in the ''Chronicon Angliae'', the gist of which is quoted in ''DNB'', lxiii. 206–207.</ref> Most of the English clergy were irritated by this encounter, and attacks upon Wycliffe began.

The second and third books of his work dealing with civil government carry a sharp [[polemic]].

On 22 May 1377 [[Pope Gregory XI]] sent five copies of a [[Papal bull|bull]] against Wycliffe, dispatching one to the [[Archbishop of Canterbury]], and the others to the [[Bishop of London]], [[Edward III of England|King Edward III]], the [[Lord Chancellor|Chancellor]], and the university; among the enclosures were 18 theses of his, which were denounced as erroneous and dangerous to Church and State. Stephen Lahey suggests that Gregory's action against Wycliffe was an attempt to put pressure on King Edward to make peace with France.<ref name=Lahey/> Edward III died on 21 June 1377, and the bull against Wycliffe did not reach England before December. Wycliffe was asked to give the king's council his opinion on whether it was lawful to withhold traditional payments to Rome, and he responded that it was.<ref name="Kiefer">{{ cite web |title=John Wyclif, Translator and Controversialist |url=http://justus.anglican.org/resources/bio/27.html }}</ref>

Back at Oxford the [[Vice-Chancellor]] confined Wycliffe for some time in Black Hall,<ref>{{cite web |title=21 St Giles, Oxford |url=https://www.oxfordhistory.org.uk/stgiles/tour/east/21.html |website=www.oxfordhistory.org.uk |access-date=21 September 2023}}</ref> but his friends soon obtained his release.

In March 1378, he was summoned to appear at [[Lambeth Palace]] to defend himself. However, Sir Lewis Clifford entered the chapel and in the name of the queen mother ([[Joan of Kent]]), forbade the bishops to proceed to a definite sentence concerning Wycliffe's conduct or opinions.<ref name=Vaughn/> Wycliffe wrote a letter expressing and defending his less "obnoxious doctrines".<ref name=tnt>{{cite book |title=Tracts and Treatises of John de Wycliffe |date=1845 |publisher=The Wycliffe Society |url=https://oll.libertyfund.org/title/vaughan-tracts-and-treatises-of-john-de-wycliffe |language=en}}</ref>{{rp|xlii}}  The bishops, who were divided, satisfied themselves with forbidding him to speak further on the controversy.

==== ''De incarcerandis fedelibus'' ====

Wycliffe then wrote his ''De incarcerandis fedelibus'', with 33 conclusions in Latin and English; in this writing he laid open 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 masses, some of the nobility, and his former protector, John of Gaunt, rallied to him. Before any further steps could be taken at Rome, Gregory XI died in 1378.

====''De officio regis''====
The attacks on Pope Gregory XI grew ever more extreme. Wycliffe's stand concerning 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 the [[friars]] who supported it.<ref name="hudson">{{ cite book |last=Hudson |first=Anne |url=https://archive.org/details/prematurereforma0000huds |title=The premature Reformation: Wycliffite texts and Lollard history |date=2002 |publisher=Clarendon |isbn=978-0-19-822762-5 |location=Oxford |author-link=Anne Hudson (academic) |url-access=registration }}</ref>{{Rp|281}}

=== Anti-Wycliffe synod ===

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 proceeded 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 the pope nor to the ecclesiastical authorities of the land, but to the king. He published his great confession upon the subject and also a second writing in English intended for the common people.<ref>{{ cite web |title=John Wycliffe |url=http://www.greatsite.com/timeline-english-bible-history/john-wycliffe.html |access-date=26 October 2019 |website=www.greatsite.com }}</ref>

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.<ref name=Conti/> This view cost him the support of [[John of Gaunt]] and many others.<ref name=Kiefer/>

In the midst of this came the [[English peasants' revolt of 1381|Peasants' Revolt of 1381]]. The revolt was sparked in part by Wycliffe's preaching carried throughout the realm by "poor priests" appointed by Wycliffe (mostly laymen). The preachers didn't limit their criticism of the accumulation of wealth and property to that of the monasteries, but rather included secular properties belonging to the nobility as well.<ref>{{ cite web |title=John Wycliffe – Michael Davies |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bJ0QoLj5PgM | archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211211/bJ0QoLj5PgM| archive-date=11 December 2021 | url-status=live|access-date=26 October 2019 |via=www.youtube.com }}{{cbignore}}</ref> 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 the consultations on 21 May [[1382 Dover Straits earthquake|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.<ref>"Earthquake Synod." Cross, F. L. and E. A. Livingstone, eds. ''The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church.'' London: Oxford UP, 1974. p. 437.</ref>

Of the 24 propositions attributed to Wycliffe without mentioning his name, ten were declared heretical and fourteen erroneous. The former had reference to 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 the arrest of those in error.

The citadel of the reformatory movement was Oxford, where Wycliffe's most active helpers were; these were laid under the ban and summoned to recant, and Nicholas of Hereford went to Rome to appeal.<ref>{{ cite web |title=§12. Nicholas Hereford and John Purvey. II. Religious Movements in the Fourteenth Century. Vol. 2. The End of the Middle Ages. The Cambridge History of English and American Literature: An Encyclopedia in Eighteen Volumes. 1907–21 |url=https://www.bartleby.com/212/0212.html |access-date=26 October 2019 |website=www.bartleby.com }}</ref>

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. 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 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."<ref>{{cite web |date=18 January 2018 |title=John Wycliffe (1324–1384) |url=http://www.webtruth.org/christian-history/john-wycliffe-1324-1384-morning-star-reformation/ |access-date=13 November 2019 |website=WebTruth.org |archive-date=27 September 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200927042320/https://www.webtruth.org/christian-history/john-wycliffe-1324-1384-morning-star-reformation/ |url-status=dead }}</ref>

=== Death and posthumous declaration of heresy ===
[[File:Portrait of John Wycliffe.jpg|left|thumb|Portrait of John Wycliffe by [[Bernard Picart]], showing the burning of his works (1714)]]

In 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 [[Donatism|invalidated their office and sacraments]].<ref>{{ citation |last=Herring |first=George |title=Introduction To The History of Christianity |page=230 |year=2006 |place=New York |publisher=New York University Press}}.</ref>

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 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.{{clarify|date=August 2021}}

The Anti-Wycliffite Statute of 1401 extended persecution to Wycliffe's remaining followers. The "Constitutions of Oxford" of 1408 aimed to reclaim authority in all ecclesiastical matters, and specifically named John Wycliffe as it banned certain writings, and decreed that new translation efforts of Scripture into English needed to be authorized.{{clarify|date=August 2021}}

[[Image:Wycliffe bones Foxe.jpg|thumb|Burning Wycliffe's bones, from ''[[Foxe's Book of Martyrs]]'' (1563)]]

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 [[Book burning|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.<ref name=Conti/> Wycliffe's corpse, or a neighbour's,<ref>{{cite journal |title=John Wycliffe |journal=The Catholic Layman |date=1856 |volume=5 |issue=59 |pages=121–123 |jstor=30066639 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/30066639 |access-date=21 September 2023 |issn=0791-5640}}</ref>{{rp|121}} was exhumed; on the orders of the bishop the remains were burned and the ashes drowned in the [[River Swift]], which flows through Lutterworth.<ref>This may have been to prevent the development of a saint or relic cult around Wycliff: some local Lollards believed a miraculous spring had sprung where his bones were buried.{{cite book |last1=Marshall |first1=Peter |title=Heretics and believers: a history of the English Reformation |date=2018 |publisher=Yale University Press |location=New Haven London |isbn=9780300234589 |edition=First published in paperback}}{{rp|116}}</ref>

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 was of unblemished walk{{clarify|date=December 2015}} 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."