John Wycliffe

{{Short description|English theologian (c. 1331 – 1384)}}
{{Redirect-multi|2|John Wickliffe|Wycliff|the ship|John Wickliffe (ship)|other uses and other people|Wycliffe (disambiguation){{!}}Wycliffe}}
{{Use British English|date=October 2016}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2022}}
{{infobox philosopher
| region           = [[Western philosophy]]
| era              = [[Medieval philosophy]]
| image            = Wycliffe by Kirby.jpg
| caption          = Portrait by Thomas Kirkby, {{circa|1828}}
| name             = John Wycliffe
| birth_date       = {{circa|1328}}
| birth_place      = [[Hipswell, Yorkshire]], Kingdom of England
| death_date       = {{death date and age|df=yes|1384|12|31|1328}}
| death_place      = [[Lutterworth, Leicestershire]], England<ref>{{ cite web |title=John Wycliffe &#124; Biography, Legacy, & Facts |url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/John-Wycliffe |access-date=26 October 2019 |website=Encyclopedia Britannica }}</ref>
| alma_mater       = [[Merton College, Oxford]]
| school_tradition = [[Scholasticism]]
| main_interests   = [[Theology]]
| notable_works    = [[Wycliffe's Bible]]
| influences       = {{hlist
| [[Roger Bacon]]
| [[William of Ockham]]
| [[Augustine of Hippo]]
| [[Robert Grosseteste]]
| [[Thomas Bradwardine]]
| [[Richard FitzRalph|Richard Fitzralph]]}}
| influenced       = {{hlist
| [[Jan Hus]]
| [[Martin Luther]]
| [[Henry VIII]]
| [[John Calvin]]
| [[Huldrych Zwingli]]
| [[William Tyndale]]
}}
}}

'''John Wycliffe''' ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|w|ɪ|k|l|ɪ|f}}; also spelled '''Wyclif''', '''Wickliffe''', and other variants;{{efn|In Latin, Ioannis Vuiclefi.}} {{c.}} 1328 – 31&nbsp;December 1384)<ref>For a recent biography see: Andrew Larsen, ''John Wyclif c. 1331–1384'', in Ian Christopher Levy (ed.), ''A Companion to John Wyclif. Late Medieval Theologian'', Leiden: Brill, 2006, pp. 1–61.</ref> was an English [[scholastic philosopher]], theologian, biblical translator, reformer, [[Catholic Church|Catholic]] priest, and a seminary professor at the [[University of Oxford]]. He became an influential dissident within the Catholic priesthood during the 14th&nbsp;century and is considered an important predecessor to [[Protestantism]]. Wycliffe questioned the privileged status of the clergy, who had bolstered their powerful role in England,<ref>Lacey Baldwin Smith, ''This Realm of England: 1399 to 1688'' (3rd ed. 1976), p. 41</ref> and advocated radical poverty of the clergy.

Wycliffe has been characterised as the "evening star" of [[scholasticism]] and as the [[Eosphoros|morning star]] or {{wiktla|stella}} {{wiktla|matutina}} of the [[English Reformation]].<ref>Emily Michael, "John Wyclif on body and mind", ''Journal of the History of Ideas'' (2003) p. 343.</ref><ref>An epithet first accorded to the theologian by the 16th&nbsp;century historian and controversialist [[John Bale]] in his ''Illustrium maioris britanniae scriptorum'' (Wesel, 1548). Margaret Aston, "John Wycliffe's Reformation Reputation", ''Past & Present'' (30, 1965) p. 24</ref>

Wycliffe's later followers, derogatorily called [[Lollards]] by their orthodox contemporaries in the 15th and 16th centuries, adopted many of the beliefs attributed to Wycliffe such as [[theological virtues]], [[predestination]], [[iconoclasm]], and the notion of [[caesaropapism]], while questioning the [[veneration of saints]], the [[sacraments]], [[requiem mass]]es, [[transubstantiation]], [[monasticism]], and the legitimacy or role of the [[Pope|Papacy]]. Like the [[Waldensians]], [[Hussites]] and [[Friends of God]],<ref>{{cite web|title=Friends of God {{!}} religious group {{!}} Britannica|url=https://www.britannica.com/event/Friends-of-God|access-date=19 December 2021|website=www.britannica.com}}</ref> the Lollard movement in some ways anticipated the [[Protestant Reformation]].<ref>{{cite web |title=Lollard. Encyclopædia Britannica. | url=http://www.academic.eb.com/levels/collegiate/article/Lollard/48798}}</ref>  Wycliffe's writings in Latin greatly influenced the philosophy and teaching of the Czech reformer [[Jan Hus]] ({{circa}} 1369–1415), whose execution in 1415 sparked a revolt that led to the [[Hussite Wars]] of 1419–1434.<ref>{{cite web |title=Catholic Encyclopedia: Jan Hus |url=http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/07584b.htm |access-date=26 October 2019 |website=www.newadvent.org }}</ref>

Wycliffe advocated translation of the Bible into the common [[vernacular]]. According to tradition, Wycliffe is said to have completed a translation direct from the [[Vulgate]] into [[Middle English]] – a version now known as [[Wycliffe's Bible]]. He may have personally translated the Gospels of [[Gospel of Matthew|Matthew]], [[Gospel of Mark|Mark]], [[Gospel of Luke|Luke]], and [[Gospel of John|John]], but it is possible he initially translated the entire [[New Testament]] Early Version. It is assumed that his associates translated the [[Old Testament]] and revised the Late Version. Wycliffe's Bible appears to have been completed prior to 1384 with additional updated versions being done by Wycliffe's assistant [[John Purvey]], and others, in 1388 and 1395. More recently, historians of the Wycliffite movement have suggested that Wycliffe had at most a minor role in the actual translations<ref name=dove>See Mary Dove, ''The First English Bible'' (Cambridge, 2007), and Elizabeth Solopova (ed.), ''The Wycliffite Bible'' (Leiden, 2016).</ref> or contributed ''ad hoc'' passages taken from his English theological writings, with some, building on the earlier theories of [[Francis Aidan Gasquet]],<ref name=gasquet>{{cite journal |last=Gasquet |first=Francis Aidan |title=The Pre-Reformation English Bible |journal=Dublin Review |date=1894 |volume=115 |pages=122–152}}</ref> going as far as to suggest he had no role in the translations other than the translation projects perhaps being inspired, at least partially, by Wycliffe's biblicism at Oxford, but otherwise being orthodox Catholic translations later co-opted by his followers.<ref name=kelly>{{citation|last=Kelly|first=Henry Ansgar|title=The Middle English Bible: A Reassessment|year=2016|place=Philadelphia |publisher=University of Pennsylvania Press}}.</ref>

== 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."

== Works ==
[[file:John wycliffe scriptro majoris britanniae 1548.jpg|thumb|John Wycliffe portrayed in [[John Bale|Bale]]'s ''Scriptor Majoris Britanniæ'' (1548)]]

Wycliffe is said to have written about two hundred works in Latin and [[Middle English]]; there are few Latinists expert in 14th Century scholastic Latin, so few of the Latin works have been translated to English, leaving much of his thought unknown even to historians.<ref name=thakkar>{{cite journal |last1=Thakkar |first1=Mark |title=Duces caecorum: On Two Recent Translations of Wyclif |journal=Vivarium |date=22 October 2020 |volume=58 |issue=4 |pages=357–383 |doi=10.1163/15685349-12341391|hdl=10023/20939 |hdl-access=free }}</ref> His theological and political works include numerous books and tracts:

* ''The Last Age of the Church'' (1356) ''attrib.''
* ''De Logica'' ("On Logic") 1360
* ''De Universalibus'' ("On Universals") 1368
* ''De Dominio Divino'' (1373)
* ''De Mandatis Divinis'' (1375)
* ''De Statu Innocencie'' (1376)
* ''De Civili Dominio'' (1377)
* ''Responsio'' (1377)
* ''De Ecclesia'' ("On the Church") 1379
* ''De veritate sacrae scripturae'' ("On the Truthfulness of Holy Scripture") 1378
* ''On the Pastoral Office'' 1378
* ''De apostasia'' ("On Apostasy") 1379
* ''De Eucharistia'' ("On the Eucharist") 1379
* ''Objections to Friars'' (1380)

Most historians hold that few to none of the Middle English works ascribed to Wycliffe can be confidently attributed to him, in contrast to the Latin works,<ref>{{citation|last=Minnis|first=Alastair|title=Translations of Authority in Medieval English Literature: Valuing the Vernacular|page=10|year=2009|place=Cambridge|publisher=Cambridge University Press}}.</ref><ref>{{citation|last=Kelly|first=Henry Ansgar|title=The Middle English Bible: A Reassessment|page=8|year=2016|place=Philadelphia |publisher=University of Pennsylvania Press}}.</ref> with the possible exception of three: ''On the Pastoral Office'', ''On the Pope'', and ''On the Church and Her Members''.<ref>{{citation|last=Lindberg|first=Conrad|title=English Wyclif Tracts 1-3|page=11|year=1991|place=Oslo|publisher=Novus Forlag}}.</ref>

=== Middle English Bibles ===
{{Further |Wycliffe's Bible}}

In keeping with Wycliffe's belief that scripture was the only authoritative reliable guide to the truth about God, he is said to have become involved in efforts to translate the Bible into English.<ref name="walker">{{ cite book |last=Walker |first=Williston |title=A History of the Christian Church |date=1958 |publisher=Charles Scribner's Sons |location=New York |page=269 |asin=B00087NRC8 }}</ref> However, while Wycliffe is popularly credited, it is not possible exactly to define his part in the translations, which were based on the [[Vulgate]], if any at all.<ref name=dove/><ref name=kelly/>

In common belief, it was his initiative, and the success of the project was due to his leadership.<ref name="Matthew">{{cite journal |last1=Matthew |first1=F. D. |title=The Authorship of the Wycliffite Bible |journal=The English Historical Review |date=1895 |volume=10 |issue=37 |pages=91–99 |jstor=547995 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/547995 |issn=0013-8266}}</ref>{{rp|93}}  For the initial Early Version (EV), the rendering of the [[Old Testament]] is attributed to his friend [[Nicholas of Hereford]]; the rendering of some of the [[New Testament]] has been traditionally attributed to Wycliffe. The whole was revised perhaps by Wycliffe's younger contemporary [[John Purvey]] in 1388, known as the Late Version (LV).{{citation needed|date=January 2024}}

There still exist about 150 manuscripts, complete or partial, mainly containing the translation in its LV form. From this, it is possible infer that texts were widely diffused in the 15th century. For this reason the Wycliffites in England were often designated by their opponents as "Bible men".{{citation needed|date=August 2023}}

== Doctrines ==
[[Image:John Wycliffe at work.jpg|thumb|left|John Wycliffe at work in his study]]

Wycliffe had come to regard the scriptures as the only reliable guide to the truth about God, and maintained that all Christians should rely on the Bible rather than on the teachings of popes and clerics. He said that there was no scriptural justification for the papacy.<ref name="Cavendish">{{ cite web|title=John Wycliffe condemned as a heretic|url=https://www.historytoday.com/archive/john-wycliffe-condemned-heretic|access-date=26 October 2019|website=www.historytoday.com }}</ref>

Theologically, his preaching expressed a strong belief in predestination that enabled him to declare an "[[Invisible church|invisible church of the elect]]", made up of those predestined to be saved, rather than in the "visible" [[Catholic Church]].<ref name="Britannica Encyclopedia, 2009">{{ citation |title=Encyclopædia Britannica |date=16 October 2009 |contribution=John Wycliffe |contribution-url=https://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/650168/John-Wycliffe |edition=online}}.</ref>
To Wycliffe, the Church was the totality of those who are [[predestination|predestined]] to blessedness. No one who is eternally lost has part in it. There is one [[Catholicism|universal Church]], and outside of it there is no [[salvation]].

His first tracts and greater works of ecclesiastical-political content defended the privileges of the State. By 1379 in his ''De ecclesia'' ("On the Church"), Wycliffe clearly claimed the supremacy of the king over the priesthood.<ref name=Conti/> He also rejected the selling of [[indulgences]].

So far as his polemics accord with those of earlier antagonists of the papacy, it is fair to assume that he was not ignorant of them and was influenced by them. It was Wycliffe who recognised and formulated one of the two major formal principles of the Reformation – the unique [[authority]] of the Bible for the belief and life of the Christian.

=== Attack on monasticism ===
The battle against what he saw as an imperialised papacy and its supporters, the "sects", as he called the [[monasticism|monastic]] orders, takes up a large space not only in his later works, such as the ''Trialogus'', ''Dialogus'', ''Opus evangelicum'', and in his sermons, but also in a series of sharp tracts and polemical productions in Latin and English (of which those issued in his later years have been collected as "Polemical Writings").

In the 1380 ''Objections to Friars'', he calls monks the pests of society, enemies of religion, and patrons and promoters of every crime.<ref name=Murray/> He directed his strongest criticism against the [[friars]], whose preaching he considered neither scriptural nor sincere, but motivated by "temporal gain".<ref name=Estep/> While others were content to seek the reform of particular errors and abuses, Wycliffe sought nothing less than the extinction of the institution itself, as being repugnant to scripture and his theology of apostolic poverty,<ref name="Lahey"/> and inconsistent with the order and prosperity of the Church.<ref name=Vaughn/> He advocated the dissolution of the monasteries.

=== Views on the papacy ===
Rudolph Buddensieg finds two distinct aspects in Wycliffe's work. The first, from 1366 to 1378, reflects a political struggle with Rome, while 1378 to 1384 is more a religious struggle. In each Wycliffe has two approaches: he attacks both the Papacy and its institutions, and also Roman Catholic doctrine.<ref name="Rudolph">{{ cite web |last=Wycliffe |first=John |date=26 October 1883 |title=John Wiclif's Polemical works in Latin |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-Ik0jPJfawIC&q=john+wycliffe |access-date=26 October 2019 |publisher=Wyclif society |via=Google Books }}</ref>

Wycliffe's influence was never greater than at the moment when pope and [[Antipope Clement VII|antipope]] sent their ambassadors to England to gain recognition for themselves. In 1378, in the ambassadors' presence, he delivered an opinion before Parliament that showed, in an important ecclesiastical political question (the matter of the [[right of asylum]] in [[Westminster Abbey]]), a position that was to the liking of the State. He argued that criminals who had taken sanctuary in churches might lawfully be dragged out of sanctuary.<ref name=Kiefer/>

The books and tracts of Wycliffe's last six years include continual attacks upon the papacy and the entire hierarchy of his times. Each year they focus more and more, and at the last, the pope and the [[Antichrist]] seem to him practically equivalent concepts. Yet there are passages which are moderate in tone: [[Gotthard Victor Lechler|G. V. Lechler]] identifies three stages in Wycliffe's relations with the papacy. The first step, which carried him to the outbreak of the [[Schism (religion)|schism]], involves moderate recognition of the [[Primacy of the Roman Pontiff|papal primacy]]; the second, which carried him to 1381, is marked by an estrangement from the papacy; and the third shows him in sharp contest.

=== Basic positions in philosophy ===
Wycliffe was a prominent English theologian and scholastic philosopher of the second half of the 14th century.<ref name=Conti/> He earned his great repute as a philosopher at an early date. [[Henry Knighton]] says that in philosophy he was second to none, and in scholastic discipline incomparable.<ref>{{ cite journal|last=Deanesly|first=Margaret|date=1971|title=A History of the Medieval Church 590–1500|url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/scottish-journal-of-theology/article/abs/history-of-the-medieval-church-5901500-by-margaret-deanesly-methuen-university-paperbacks-pp-284-18s-also-in-hardback-36s/EA8ADD4C6B3FB0501C17E84F3A582209|journal=Scottish Journal of Theology|volume=24|issue=2|page=239|via=Cambridge University Press }}</ref> There was a period in his life when he devoted himself exclusively to scholastic philosophy. His first book, ''{{lang-la|De Logica}}'' (1360), explores the fundamentals of Scholastic Theology. He believed that "one should study Logic in order to better understand the human mind because ...human thoughts, feelings and actions bear God's image and likeness".<ref name=Mattei/>

The centre of Wycliffe's philosophical system is formed by the doctrine of the prior existence in the thought of God of all things and events. While [[Plato|Platonic realism]] would view "beauty' as a property that exists in an ideal form independently of any mind or thing, "for Wycliffe every [[Universal (metaphysics)|universal]], as part of creation, derived its existence from God, the Creator".<ref name="Mattei">{{ cite web |date=14 October 2016 |title=John Wycliffe: The Morning Star of the Reformation |url=https://leben.us/john-wycliffe-morning-star-reformation/ |access-date=26 October 2019 }}</ref> Wycliffe was a close follower of [[Augustine of Hippo|Augustine]], and always upheld the primacy of the Creator over the created reality.

In some of his teachings, as in ''{{lang-la|De annihilatione}}'', the influence of [[Thomas Aquinas]] can be detected.
He said that [[Democritus]], Plato, Augustine, and [[Grosseteste]] far outranked Aristotle. So far as his relations to the [[Medieval philosophy|philosophers of the Middle Ages]] are concerned, he held to [[Philosophical realism|realism]] as opposed to the [[nominalism]] advanced by [[William of Ockham]].

A number of Wycliffe's ideas have been carried forward in the twentieth century by philosopher and Reformed theologian [[Cornelius Van Til]].{{citation needed|date=June 2021}}

====''Dominium''====
A second key point of Wycliffe's is his emphasis on the notion of divine Lordship (''{{lang-la|dominium}}'').<ref>{{harvnb|Lahey|2009|loc=Ch. 7}}: "Wyclif’s writings on ''dominium'', which make up the bulk of the first half of his ''Summa Theologie'', contain the essence of his theological vision, uniting his metaphysics to his sociopolitical and ecclesiological thought."</ref>

''{{lang-la|De dominio Divino}}'' (c. 1373) examines the relationship between God and his creatures. The practical application of this for Wycliffe was seen in the rebellious attitude of individuals (particulars) towards rightful authority (universals).

"Beyond all doubt, intellectual and emotional error about universals is the cause of all sin that reigns in the world."<ref>Wycliffe, John. ''On Universals'', (trans. A. Kenny), Oxford: 1985, pp. 162–165</ref>

In ''{{lang-la|De civili dominio}}'' ("On Civil Dominion", c. 1377) he discusses the appropriate circumstance under which an entity may be seen as possessing authority over lesser subjects. ''{{lang-la|Dominium}}'' is always conferred by God: injuries inflicted on someone personally by a king should be born by them submissively, a conventional idea, but injuries by a king against God should be patiently resisted even to death.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Rao |first1=H. Krishna |title=John Wycliffe |journal=The Indian Journal of Political Science |date=1942 |volume=3 |issue=4 |pages=372–379 |jstor=42754272 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/42754272 |issn=0019-5510}}</ref> Gravely sinful kings and popes forfeited their divine right to obedience. Versions of this were taken up by [[Lollards]] and [[Hussites]].

=== Attitude toward speculation ===
Wycliffe's fundamental principle of the preexistence in thought of all reality involves the most serious obstacle to freedom of the will; the philosopher could assist himself only by the formula that the [[free will]] of man was something predetermined of God. He demanded strict dialectical training as the means of distinguishing the true from the false, and asserted that logic (or the [[syllogism]]) furthered the knowledge of catholic verities; ignorance of logic was the reason why men misunderstood Scripture, since men overlooked the connection, the distinction between idea and appearance.

Wycliffe was not merely conscious of the distinction between theology and philosophy, but his sense of reality led him to pass by scholastic questions. He left aside philosophical discussions that seemed to have no significance for the religious consciousness and those that pertained purely to [[scholasticism]]: "We concern ourselves with the verities that are, and leave aside the errors which arise from speculation on matters which are not."

=== Sacraments ===
John Wycliffe rejected [[transubstantiation]] along with the [[Confession (religion)|sacrament of confession]], saying they were against scripture.<ref name=":0">{{cite web|title=John Wycliffe Was an English Bible Translator and Early Reformer|url=https://www.learnreligions.com/john-wycliffe-biography-699998|access-date=22 January 2022|website=Learn Religions}}</ref> Wycliffe was attacked as being a [[Donatism|Donatist]], however the claim was a misconception, perhaps used to discredit his views on the Eucharist.<ref>{{cite web |last=Woods |first=William |title=Why was John Wyclif regarded as a heretic by the Roman Catholic Church? |url=https://www.academia.edu/18184467 |format=PDF |publisher=Brisbane School of Theology}}</ref>

<blockquote>The consecrated Host we priests make and bless is not the body of the Lord but an effectual sign of it. It is not to be understood that the body of Christ comes down from heaven to the Host consecrated in every church.
:— John Wycliffe<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.christianitytoday.com/history/issues/issue-3/from-archives-wycliffe-causes-controversy-over-eucharist.html | title=From the Archives: Wycliffe Causes Controversy over Eucharist }}</ref></blockquote>

=== Soteriology ===
Wycliffe appears to have had similar ideas of justification as the later reformers would. According to Wycliffe faith was sufficient for salvation:<ref name=":0"/>

<blockquote>Trust wholly in Christ; rely altogether on his sufferings; beware of seeking to be justified in any other way than by his righteousness. Faith in our Lord Jesus Christ is sufficient for salvation.
:— John Wycliffe<ref name=":0"/></blockquote>

=== Scripture ===
Wycliffe expressed his theories in the book ''{{lang-la|De Veritate Sacrae Scripturae}}'' (On the Truthfulness of Holy Scripture, c.1378).

Wycliffe's dictum {{lang-la|omnis veritas est ex scriptura, et ut necessarior est expressior}} says that all truths necessary to faith are
found expressly in the Bible, and the more necessary, the more expressly.<ref name=ghosh>{{cite book |last1=Ghosh |first1=Kantik |title=The Wycliffite Heresy: Authority and the Interpretation of Texts |date=4 October 2001 |doi=10.1017/CBO9780511483288|isbn=9780521807203 }}</ref>{{rp|67}}

The whole of scripture is one word of God (''{{lang-la|Tota scriptura sacra est unum dei verbum}}''):  being a monologue by the same author meant that sentences from different books could be combined without much regard for context, supporting strained and mystical interpretations.<ref name=ghosh />{{rp|23,28}}

The scriptures were literally true (''{{lang-la|sensus . . . literalis est utrobique verus, cum non asseritur a recte intelligentibus}}'') unless obviously figurative, to the extent that when Jesus spoke in parables, he was reporting events that had actually occurred.<ref name=ghosh />{{rp|34}} [[Psalm 22]] v6 ("I am a worm and no man"),<ref>This verse is also used in the quasi-[[Joachimite]] Middle English tract ''The Last Age of the Church'', attributed to the young Wycliffe, which gives the year 1400 as start of the age of the anti-Christ, interpreting the verse using versions of a Talmudic legend and mentioning a supposed prophecy of Merlin. {{cite web |last1=Wycliffe |first1=John |title=The last age of the church |url=https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/70258 |language=English |date=10 March 2023}}</ref> which [[Pseudo-Dionysius]] had memorably used to give 'worm' as a name of God,<ref>{{cite web |last1=Corrigan |first1=Kevin |last2=Harrington |first2=L. Michael |title=Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite |url=https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/pseudo-dionysius-areopagite/#CharWrit |website=The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy |publisher=Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University |date=2023}}</ref> became in Wycliffe's extreme literalism a statement that Jesus had been begotten without sexual contact (as was then believed of worms) and was formally God not a simply man.<ref name=ghosh />{{rp|32}} The literal sense of scripture is that sense which the Holy Ghost first imparted so that the faithful soul might ascend to God ({{lang-la|sensum literalem scripture sensum, quem spiritus sanctus primo indidit, ut animus fidelis ascendat in deum.}})<ref name=ghosh />{{rp|36}}

<!-- Add: sinners cannot interpret. -->

==== Vernacular Scripture====
Wycliffe is popularly connected with the view that scriptures should be translated into the vernacular and made available to laymen, and that this was a critical issue in the censures against him.

However, scholars have noted the availability of scriptures to laypeople in the vernacular was not a notable theme of Wycliffe's theological works. (It is mentioned in his ''De XXXIII erroribus curitatum'', Chapter 26 against those who would stop secular men from "intermeddling with the Gospel".<ref name=tnt/>{{rp|27}}) Nor were there any church-wide bans on vernacular scriptures in place that Wycliffe might be regarded as protesting against.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=François |first1=Wim |title=Vernacular Bible Reading in Late Medieval and Early Modern Europe: The "Catholic" Position Revisited |journal=The Catholic Historical Review |date=2018 |volume=104 |issue=1 |pages=23–56 |doi=10.1353/cat.2018.0001 |s2cid=163790511 |url=https://lirias.kuleuven.be/retrieve/567000 |access-date=14 August 2023}}</ref> It was not part of Wycliffe's 1377 papal censure, nor the declaration of heresy by the [[Council of Constance]] (1415).<ref name=constance>{{cite journal |last1=Tatnall |first1=Edith C. |title=The condemnation of John Wyclif at the Council of Constance |journal=Councils and Assemblies |series=Studies in Church History |date=1970 |pages=209–218 |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/abs/councils-and-assemblies/condemnation-of-john-wyclif-at-the-council-of-constance/8C7D1C3420BFE791D5AC6D8FE36ED300 |publisher=Cambridge University Press|doi=10.1017/CBO9780511665820.013 |isbn=9780521080385 }}</ref> Vernacular scriptures were not mentioned in the two key early Lollard documents, regarded as channelling his doctrine: the [[Twelve Conclusions of the Lollards|Twelve Conclusions]] (c. 1396)<ref>{{cite web |title=The Twelve Conclusions of the Lollards |url=https://chaucer.fas.harvard.edu/pages/twelve-conclusions-lollards |website=chaucer.fas.harvard.edu |language=en}}</ref> and the [[Ecclesiae Regimen|Thirty Seven Conclusions]] (c. 1396)<ref>{{cite journal |title=The Thirty Seven Conclusions of the Lollards |journal=English Theological Review |date=1911 |volume=XXVI |pages=738–749 |url=https://lollardsociety.org/pdfs/Compston_37_conclusions.pdf}}</ref> (or Remonstrances).

== Legacy ==
[[File:Wycliffecollege toronto chapel1.jpg|thumb|A stained glass window in [[Wycliffe College]] Chapel, Toronto]]

Wycliffe was instrumental in the development of a translation of the Bible in English, thus making it accessible to English speakers with poor Latin, though whether he himself translated the Bible, in part or whole, or merely played a part in motivating its translation indirectly through his revival of Oxford biblical studies, is a matter of debate.

His theology also had a strong influence on [[Jan Hus]].<ref name="Budd">{{ cite web |last=Buddensieg |first=Rudolf |date=26 October 1884 |title=John Wiclif, patriot & reformer; life and writings |url=http://archive.org/details/johnwiclifpatrio00budd |access-date=26 October 2019 |publisher=London : T. Fisher Unwin |via=Internet Archive }}</ref> Hus' ''De Ecclesia'' summarised Wycliffe's work of the same name, with additional material from Wycliffe's ''De potentate papae''. See also [[Jan Hus#Writings of Hus and Wycliffe|Writings of Hus and Wycliffe]].

Several institutions are named after him:

* [[Wycliffe Global Alliance]], an alliance of organisations with the common objective of translating the Bible for every language group that needs it.
* [[Wycliffe Hall, Oxford]], one of the Church of England's designated Evangelical [[Seminary|theological colleges]].
* [[Wycliffe College, Toronto]], a graduate theological school federated with the University of Toronto.
* [[Wycliffe College, Gloucestershire]], an English independent, private day and boarding school.

Wycliffe is [[Calendar of saints (Church of England)|honoured]] with a [[Commemoration (Anglicanism)|commemoration]] in the [[Calendar of saints (Church of England)|Church of England]] on 31 December,<ref>{{ cite web|title=The Calendar|url=https://www.churchofengland.org/prayer-and-worship/worship-texts-and-resources/common-worship/churchs-year/calendar|access-date=10 April 2021|website=The Church of England }}</ref> and in the [[Anglican Church of Canada]].<ref>{{citation |title=The Prayer Book online |contribution=57. The Calendar, ix |contribution-url=http://prayerbook.ca/the-prayer-book-online/57-the-calendar-ix |place=[[Canada|CA]] |access-date=26 November 2012 |archive-date=4 November 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131104172841/http://prayerbook.ca/the-prayer-book-online/57-the-calendar-ix |url-status=dead }}</ref>

Wycliffe and its variants are popular [[Wycliffe (name)#People with the given nam|given names]], presumably starting in some Protestant communities. For example, Haitian rapper and musician [[Wyclef Jean]].

In the centre of Lutterworth, a [[Listed building|Grade II-listed]] memorial obelisk to Wycliffe was erected in June 1897<ref>{{NHLE|num=1209165|desc=Wycliffe Memorial, Bitteswell Road, Lutterworth, Leicestershire|grade=II|access-date=29 March 2024}}</ref> on a site behind which the Wycliffe Memorial Methodist Church was built a few years later for the town's Wesleyan Methodist congregation.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.mywesleyanmethodists.org.uk/content/chapels/leicestershire/lutterworth_bitteswell_road_wycliffe_memorial_wesleyan_methodist_chapel_leicestershire|title=Lutterworth, Bitteswell Road, Wycliffe Memorial Wesleyan Methodist Chapel, Leicestershire|date=24 June 2018|publisher=Methodist Heritage and the [[Methodist Church of Great Britain]]|access-date=29 March 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220529091353/https://www.mywesleyanmethodists.org.uk/content/chapels/leicestershire/lutterworth_bitteswell_road_wycliffe_memorial_wesleyan_methodist_chapel_leicestershire|archive-date=29 May 2022|url-status=live|work=My Wesleyan Methodists website}}</ref>

== See also ==
{{Portal|Saints}}
* [[John Bankin]]
* [[Ecclesiae Regimen]]
* [[Lollardy]]
* [[William Tyndale]]

== Footnotes ==
{{notelist}}

== Citations ==
{{Reflist}}

== General and cited sources ==
* {{cite book |last=Edgar |first=Robert |year=2008 |title=Civilizations Past & Present |edition=12th |volume=1: ''To 1650'' |url=https://archive.org/details/civilizationspas0000unse/mode/2up |publisher=Pearson Education |isbn=978-0205573752 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/civilizationspas0000unse/page/434/mode/2up 434–435]}}
* {{cite ODNB |last=Hudson |first=Anne |author1link=Anne Hudson (academic) |first2=Anthony |last2=Kenny |year=2004 |title=Wyclif, John (d. 1384) |id=30122}}
* {{cite book |last1=Lahey |first1=Stephen |title=John Wyclif |date=2009 |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=New York |isbn=978-0-19-518331-3}}

== Further reading ==
* Boreczky, Elemér. ''John Wyclif's Discourse on Dominion in Community'' (Leiden, Brill, 2007) (Studies in the History of Christian Traditions 139).
* Fountain, David. ''John Wycliffe – The Dawn Of The Reformation'' (Mayflower Christian Publications, 1984) {{ISBN|978-0907821021}}.
* Hudson, Anne, and Anthony Kenny. "Wyclif, John (d. 1384)", ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', Oxford University Press, 2004; online ed., September 2010 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/30122, accessed 13 October 2014] {{doi|10.1093/ref:odnb/30122}}; a short biography 
* Ghosh, Kantik. ''The Wycliffite Heresy. Authority and the Interpretation of Texts'' (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2001) (Cambridge Studies in Medieval Literature, 45) ({{ISBN|0-521-80720-4}}).
* Lahey, Stephen E. ''John Wyclif'' (Oxford University Press, 2009) (Great Medieval Thinkers).
* Lahey, Stephen E. "John Wyclif." in ''Encyclopedia of Medieval Philosophy'' (Springer Netherlands, 2011) pp.&nbsp;653–58.
* [[Geoffrey Hugo Lampe|G. W. H. Lampe, ed.]] ''The Cambridge History of the Bible. The West from the Fathers to the Reformation'', [Vol 2] 
* Leff, Gordon. ''John Wyclif: The Path the Dissent'' (Oxford University Press, 1966)
* Levy, Ian C., ed. ''A Companion to John Wyclif, Late Medieval Theologian''. Brill's Companions to the Christian Tradition 4). Leiden: Brill, 2006. (hardcover, {{ISBN|90-04-15007-2}}.)
* McFarlane, K. B.  ''The origins of religious dissent in England'' (New York, Collier Books, 1966) (Originally published under the title "John Wycliffe and the beginnings of English nonconformity", 1952).
* Michael, Emily (2003). [http://mtw160-198.ippl.jhu.edu/journals/journal_of_the_history_of_ideas/v064/64.3michael.pdf "John Wyclif on body and mind"]. ''Journal of the History of Ideas''. 64#3 pp.&nbsp;343–60.
* Robson, John Adam. ''Wyclif and the Oxford Schools:  The Relation of the "Summa de Ente" to Scholastic Debates at Oxford in the Later Fourteenth Century'' (Cambridge, England:  Cambridge University Press, 1961).
* Thakkar, Mark. ''[https://www.academia.edu/44398256/Duces_caecorum_On_Two_Recent_Translations_of_Wyclif Duces caecorum: On Two Recent Translations of Wyclif]'' (Vivarium, 2020)

== External links ==
{{Commons}}
{{Wikiquote}}
* {{cite SEP |url-id=wyclif-political |title=Wyclif's Political Philosophy |last=Lahey |first=Stephen}}
* [https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b011vh4k/In_Our_Time_John_Wyclif_and_the_Lollards/ BBC radio 4 discussion] from ''[[In Our Time (BBC Radio 4)|In Our Time]]''. "John Wyclif and the Lollards". (45 mins)
* {{Wikisource-inline|list=
** [[John Foxe]], "[[s:The Book of Martyrs (Foxe)/Chapter VII|An Account of the Life and Persecutions of John Wickliffe]]," [[s:The Book of Martyrs (Foxe)|''The Book of Martyrs'']].
** {{Cite NIE|wstitle=Wiclif, John|year=1905 |short=x |noicon=x}}
** {{Cite EB1911|wstitle=Wycliffe, John |short=x |noicon=x}}
** {{Cite CE1913|wstitle=John Wyclif |short=x |noicon=x}}
}}
* {{Internet Archive author |sname=John Wycliffe}}
* {{Librivox author |id=2091}}
* [https://www.wycliffe.org/ Wycliffe Bible Translators]

{{Proto-Protestantism}}
{{Masters of Balliol College, Oxford}}
{{Christian History}}
{{Authority control}}

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