John Wycliffe

====''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.