John Wycliffe

=== 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.