View source for John Wycliffe

{{Short description|English theologian (c. 1331 – 1384)}}
{{Redirect-multi|2|John Wickliffe|Wycliff|the ship|John Wickliffe (ship){{!}}''John Wyckliffe'' (ship)|other uses and other people|Wycliffe (disambiguation){{!}}Wycliffe}}
{{Use British English|date=July 2025}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=March 2025}}
{{infobox philosopher
| region           = [[Western philosophy]]
| era              = [[Medieval philosophy]]
| image            = Wycliffe by Kirby.jpg
| caption          = Fictitious portrait by [[Thomas Kirkby (painter)|Thomas Kirkby]], {{circa|1828}}
| honorific_prefix = [[The Reverend]]
| name             = John Wycliffe
| birth_date       = {{circa|1328}}
| birth_place      = [[Hipswell]], [[Yorkshire]], 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]] (attributed)
}}

'''John Wycliffe''' ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|w|ɪ|k|l|ɪ|f}}; also spelled ''Wyclif'', ''Wickliffe'', ''Wicklyf'' etc.;{{efn|In Latin, Ioannes Wiclefus.}} {{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]], [[Christianity|Christian]] reformer, [[Catholic priest]], and a [[theology]] professor at the [[University of Oxford]]. Wycliffe is traditionally believed to have advocated for or made a [[vernacular]] translation of the [[Vulgate]] Bible into [[Middle English]], though more recent scholarship has minimised the extent of his advocacy or involvement for lack of direct contemporary evidence.<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>{{rp|7–8}}<ref>{{cite book |last=Hudson |first=Anne |title=Lollards and Their Books |date=1985 |publisher=Hambledon Press |location=London| pages=144–145}}</ref><ref name=Minnis>{{cite book |last=Minnis |first=Alastair |title=Translations of Authority in Medieval English Literature: Valuing the Vernacular |date=2009 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |location=Cambridge |page = 10}}</ref>

He became an influential dissident within the Catholic priesthood during the 14th&nbsp;century and his ideas are often considered an important [[Proto-Protestantism|predecessor]] to [[Protestantism]].<ref>Lacey Baldwin Smith, ''This Realm of England: 1399 to 1688'' (3rd ed. 1976), p. 41</ref>  His political-theological theory of ''[[Dominion (political theory)|dominion]]'' meant that the church was not allowed to own property or have ecclesiastic  courts, and men in [[mortal sin]] were not entitled to exercise authority in the church or state, nor to own property.<ref>{{cite web |title=John Wyclif, Translator and Controversialist |url=http://justus.anglican.org/resources/bio/27.html |website=justus.anglican.org}}</ref> Wycliffe insisted on the radical poverty of all clergy.

Wycliffe has been characterised as the "[[Hesperus|evening star]]" of [[scholasticism]] and as the "[[Eosphoros|morning star]]" or {{Wikt-lang|la|stella}} {{Wikt-lang|la|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>

Certain of Wycliffe's later followers, derogatorily called [[Lollards]] by their orthodox contemporaries in the 15th and 16th centuries, adopted a number of the beliefs attributed to Wycliffe such as [[theological virtues]], [[predestination]], [[iconoclasm]], and the notion of [[caesaropapism]], with some questioning the [[veneration of saints]], the [[sacraments]], [[requiem mass]]es, [[transubstantiation]], [[monasticism]], and the legitimacy or role of the [[Pope|Papacy]].  Wycliffe's writings in Latin greatly influenced the philosophy and teaching of the Czech reformer [[Jan Hus]] ({{circa}} 1369–1415).<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>

== 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, although there is some dispute about the date. He has conventionally been given a birth date of 1324{{cn|date=October 2025}} but Hudson and Kenny state only records "suggest he was born in the mid-1320s"{{sfn|Hudson|Kenny|2004}} and Conti states that he was born "after 1331".{{sfn|Conti|2025}}

Wycliffe received his early education close to his home.<ref>{{ citation |last=Dallmann |first=William |title=John Wiclif |url=https://media.ctsfw.edu/Text/ViewDetails/15845 |journal=Concordia Theological Quarterly |volume=XI |page=41 |year=1907}}</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, greatly shaped 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 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 ===

In 1356, Wycliffe completed his bachelor of arts degree at [[Merton College, Oxford|Merton College]] as a junior fellow.<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, which 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 judgement 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/>

In 1361, he was [[Master (college)|Master]] of [[Balliol College, Oxford|Balliol College]] in Oxford.<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> That 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.

In 1365, his performance led [[Simon Islip]], [[Archbishop of Canterbury]], to place him 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 in 1366, his successor, [[Simon Langham]], a man of monastic training, turned the leadership of the college over to a monk. In 1367, Wycliffe's  appeal to Rome was refused in 1371. The incident was typical of the ongoing rivalry between monks or friars 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 began his translation of the Bible into English while 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 |date=July 1983 }}</ref>  In 1374, he received the crown living of [[St Mary's Church, Lutterworth]] in [[Leicestershire]],<ref name="Urquhart">{{CathEncy|wstitle=John Wyclif|first=Urquhart|last=Francis|year=1912|volume=15}}</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 Wycliffe's was part of a group negotiating in [[Treaty of Bruges (1375)|Bruges]] on behalf of the English Government with [[Gregory XI]]'s [[papal envoy]]s on a number of disputed points between the king and the pope which may have started his connection with the [[Duke of Lancaster]] [[John of Gaunt]],<ref name=Urquhart/> a powerful magnate and power broker who was the third son of King [[Edward III]], although that connection may have started as early as 1371.{{sfn|Conti|2025}} Soon after his return from Bruges he began to write tracts and longer works, being no longer satisfied with just using his college chair to promote his ideas . In a book{{which|date=October 2025}} 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]].

According to the English Catholic historian [[Francis Aidan Gasquet]], at least some of Wycliffe's program should be seen as  (naive) "attempts at social reconstruction" in the aftermath the continuing institutional chaos after the [[Black Death]] (1347–1349) <ref>{{cite book |last1=Gasquet |first1=Francis Aidan |title=The Great Pestilence (A.D. 1348-9), Now Commonly Known as the Black Death |date=29 May 2014 |url=https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/45815 |language=English}}</ref>

====''De civili dominio''====
Wycliffe 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]].<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. Wycliffe argued that the Church had fallen into sin and that it ought therefore to give up all its property, and that the clergy must live in poverty. The tendency of the high offices of state to be held by clerics was resented by powerful nobles such as [[John of Gaunt]] whose power was challenged by the wealth and power of the clergy<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> while also believing that church wealth could fund the government's military needs.{{sfn|Castor|2024|p=24}}

====Conflicts with Church, State and University====
In 1377,{{sfn|Conti|2025}} Wycliffe's ideas on lordship and church wealth caused his first official condemnation by [[Pope Gregory XI]], who censured 19 articles of ''De civili dominio''.{{sfn|Conti|2025}} He was summoned before [[William Courtenay (bishop)|William Courtenay]], [[Bishop of London]], to a [[Convocations of Canterbury and York|convocation]] on 19 February 1377{{sfn|Lechler|1904|p=172}} at [[Old St Paul's Cathedral|St Paul's Cathedral]].<ref name=Urquhart/> The exact charges are not known, as the matter did not get as far as a definite examination.{{cn|date=October 2025}} Lechler suggests that Wycliffe was targeted by [[John of Gaunt]]'s opponents among the nobles and church hierarchy.{{sfn|Lechler|1904}}{{Page needed|date=October 2025}} Gaunt, the [[Earl Marshal]] [[Henry Percy, 1st Earl of Northumberland|Henry Percy]], and a number of other armed supporters accompanied Wycliffe.{{sfn|Lechler|1904|p=172}} A hostile crowd gathered at the church,<ref name=Urquhart/> and at the entrance, party animosities began to show,{{cn|date=October 2025}} and there was an angry exchange between the Bishop of London and John of Gaunt<ref name=Urquhart/> about whether Wycliffe could sit.{{sfn|Lechler|1904|pp=173-174}}
[[File:BrownManchesterMuralWyclif.jpg|thumb|300px|left|Mural depicting trial of the 19 February 1377. One of [[The Manchester Murals]] by [[Ford Madox Brown]]. [[John of Gaunt|Gaunt]] is shown demonstrating with [[William Courtenay (bishop)|William Courtenay]] while a barefoot Wycliffe looks on. [[Geoffrey Chaucer]] is depicted as one of the scribes.]]

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]].{{sfn|Rashdall|1900|pp=206-207}} [[Anti-Gaunt riots]] followed the next day in London. Most of the English clergy were irritated by this encounter, and attacks upon Wycliffe began.

Wycliffe's second and third books 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: all were drawn from ''De Civili dominio''.<ref name=larson>{{cite book |last1=Larsen |first1=Andrew E. |title=The School of Heretics: Academic Condemnation at the University of Oxford, 1277–1409 |date=9 September 2011 |doi=10.1163/9789004206625_009|url=https://brill.com/display/book/9789004206625/B9789004206625-s009.xml}}</ref>{{rp|ch8}}

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, Wycliffe 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'' (On the Incarceration of the Faithful), with 33 conclusions in Latin and English. Wycliffe did not think that incarceration should be a permitted form of excommunication.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Wycliffe |first1=John |last2=Pollard |first2=Alfred W. (Alfred William) |last3=Sayle |first3=Charles |title=Tractatus de officio regis |date=1966 |publisher=New York [etc.] : Johnson Reprint ; Frankfurt am Main : Minerva |url=https://archive.org/details/tractatusdeoffic00wycl/}}</ref>{{rp|xxvii}} In the book he demanded that it should be legal for the excommunicated and incarcerated to appeal to the king and his council against the excommunication or incarceration.{{what|date=April 2025}}{{citation needed|date=April 2025}}   

Some ordinary citizens, some of the nobility, and his former protector, John of Gaunt, rallied to him. Before any further steps could be taken in Rome, Gregory XI died in 1378.

====''De officio regis''====
[[John Wycliffe#Views on the papacy|Wycliffe's stance against the papacy]] grew ever more extreme moving from respect to outright opposition. 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 had been foreshadowed in his 33 conclusions: for example, that a trial before Parliament and Synod was necessary for excommunication, that the King should (intervene and) not authorise imprisonment as a sentence for excommunication.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Wycliffe |first1=John |last2=Pollard |first2=Alfred W. (Alfred William) |last3=Sayle |first3=Charles |title=Tractatus de officio regis |date=1966 |publisher=New York [etc.] : Johnson Reprint ; Frankfurt am Main : Minerva |url=https://archive.org/details/tractatusdeoffic00wycl/}}</ref>{{rp|227-231}} 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 ===
[[File:John Wycliff Frederikskirken.JPG|thumb|right|Statue of Wycliffe on [[Frederick's Church]], [[Copenhagen]]]]
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 launched proceedings 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 or the ecclesiastical authorities of the land, but to the king. He published his great confession upon the subject, and 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.{{sfn|Conti|2025}} 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" or "poor preachers" appointed by Wycliffe, and mostly laymen. A contemporary record claims local sympathetic knights would force local people to hear the preaching, sometimes acting as armed guards in the parish church to prevent disputation.<ref name=waugh>{{cite journal |last1=Waugh |first1=W. T. |title=The Lollard Knights |journal=The Scottish Historical Review |date=1913 |volume=11 |issue=41 |pages=55–92 |jstor=25518640 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/25518640 |issn=0036-9241}}</ref> The preachers didn't limit their criticism of the accumulation of wealth and property to that of the monasteries, but included secular properties belonging to the nobility.<ref>{{ cite web |title=John Wycliffe – Michael Davies | date=12 April 2018 |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,{{cn|date=October 2025}} some of his disciples justified the killing of [[Simon Sudbury]], Archbishop of Canterbury.{{cn|date=October 2025}}

In 1382, Wycliffe's old enemy [[William Courtenay (bishop)|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.
[[File:Johannes Wiclef LACMA 55.22.1.jpg|thumb|left|]]
The citadel of the reformatory movement was Oxford, where Wycliffe's most active helpers were. The ban applied to them and they were summoned to recant. 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. In 1383 he was summonsed to Rome, but he suffered a debilitating stroke and was excused from travel. 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]],{{dubious|date=October 2024}} and preached the [[Gospel]] to the people. Itinerant preachers spread the teachings of Wycliffe.<ref>{{cite web |title=Lollard {{!}} English Religious Reformers & Medieval Heresy {{!}} Britannica |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/Lollards |access-date=9 March 2025 |website=www.britannica.com }}</ref> 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> Furthermore, not all anti-clerical people were Lollards, not all Lollards were Wycliffites, and not all productions attributed to Wycliffites were anti-Catholic, despite later conflation.<ref name=waugh/>

=== Death and posthumous declaration of heresy ===
[[File:Portrait of John Wycliffe.jpg|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}}  He started to be venerated as a local saint; some Bohemian followers "even took a piece of his tomb to Prague, where it was worshipped as a relic."<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Boreczky |first1=Elemér |title=Actor or Author |journal=The AnaChronisT |url=https://www.academia.edu/62795581}}</ref>

The anti-Lollard statute of 1401 [[De heretico comburendo]] classed heresy as a form of sedition or treason, and ordered that [[Lollard]] books, frequently associated with Wycliffe, be handed over and burnt; someone who refused and would not abjure could be burnt. The "Constitutions of Oxford" of 1408 established rules in Oxford University, and specifically named John Wycliffe as a Lollard and his writings as heretical; it decreed that new translation efforts of Scripture into English should be first authorised by a Bishop.{{clarify|date=August 2021}}

[[Image:Wycliffe bones Foxe.jpg|thumb|300px|left|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.{{sfn|Conti|2025}} 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|page 121, middle of column}} was exhumed; unusually, 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. See {{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 experts in 14th-century scholastic Latin, and many of Wycliffe's Latin works have not been translated into English, which has limited their study by 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)
* ''De Officio Regis''
* ''Responsio'' (1377)
* ''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)
* ''Trialogus'' – four books (c 1381–83)

Most historians hold that few to none of the Middle English works (tracts) ascribed to Wycliffe can be confidently attributed to him, in contrast to the Latin works,<ref name=Minnis/><ref name=kelly/>{{rp|8}} with the possible exception of six: ''On the Pastoral Office'', ''On the Pope'', ''On the Church and Her Members'', ''Of Confession'', ''Of Pseudo-Friars'', and ''Of Dominion''.<ref>{{citation|last=Lindberg|first=Conrad|title=English Wyclif Tracts 1–3|page=11|year=1991|place=Oslo|publisher=Novus Forlag}}.</ref><ref>{{citation|last=Lindberg|first=Conrad|title=English Wyclif Tracts 4–6|page=7|year=2000|place=Oslo|publisher=Novus Forlag}}.</ref>

A large number of sermons ascribed to him, about 250 in Middle English and 170 in Latin, survive.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Laverty |first1=Rhys |title=John Wycliffe, Reformer Pt. 3: Wycliffe and the Poor Priests |url=https://adfontesjournal.com/church-history/john-wycliffe-reformer-pt-3-wycliffe-and-the-poor-priests/ |website=Ad Fontes |date=2 May 2023}}</ref>

=== Middle English Bibles ===
{{Further |Wycliffe's Bible}}
[[File:Wycliffe John Gospel.jpg|thumb|[[John 1]] from a manuscript of Wycliffe's Bible]]
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]].<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>  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/>

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. However, while Wycliffe is popularly credited, it is not possible exactly to define his part, if any, in the translations, which were based on the [[Vulgate]].<ref name=dove/><ref name=kelly/>
[[File:Ford Madox Brown - John Wycliffe reading his translation of the bible to John of Gaunt.jpeg|thumb|left|Wycliffe reading his Bible to John of Gaunt by Ford Madox Brown in the [[Cartwright Hall]] Gallery, [[Bradford]]]]
In common belief from only decades after the translations, 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}} Linguistic analysis, however, suggests there were multiple translators for both EV and LV translations.<ref name=kelly/>

There still exist over 200 manuscripts,<ref name="clossey">{{ cite book |last=Clossey |first=Luke |title=Jesus and the Making of the Modern Mind, 1380–1520 |date=2024 |publisher=Open Book Publishers |location=Cambridge |page=257 |doi=10.11647/OBP.0371 |doi-access=free |isbn=978-1-80511-001-9 }}</ref> complete or partial, mainly containing the translation in its LV form. From this, it is possible to 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}} it has been noted, however, that the vocabulary in English Wycliffite sermons doesn't typically match that found in the EV or LV.<ref>{{ cite book |last=McCormack |first=Frances |title=Chaucer and the Culture of Dissent: The Lollard Context and Subtext of the Parson's Tale |date=2007 |publisher=Four Courts Press |location=Dublin |page=161}}</ref>

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

Historian S. Harrison Thomson notes that Wycliff's theology was on a broader canvas than the continental reformation: however of the major Protestant ''notes'', it is difficult to find [[justification by faith]] alone or the [[priesthood of all believers]] espoused in his works.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Thomson |first1=S. Hunter |title=John Wyclif |journal=Reformers in Profile: [essays]. |date=1967 |url=https://archive.org/details/reformers-in-profile/page/n5/mode/2up}}</ref> 

{{quote|It is right for God to have two vicars in His church, namely a king in temporal affairs, and a priest in spiritual. The king should strongly check rebellion, as did God in the Old Testament, while priests ought minister the precepts mildly, as did Christ, who was at once priest and king.” |source=John Wyciffe, ''De Officio Regis''<ref>{{cite web |last1=Lahey |first1=Stephen |title=John Wyclif's Political Philosophy |url=https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/wyclif-political/ |archive-url=https://archive.today/20150309035026/http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/wyclif-political/|archive-date=9 March 2015|website=The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy |publisher=Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University |date=2014}}</ref>}}

And while Wycliffe certainly advocated "the supremacy of scripture over tradition", no reformer adopted his view that every verse in Scripture was in some way literally true. According to popular history, 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 or special courts for religious (e.g., monks) or the clergy (e.g., priests).<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 [[Church invisible|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.{{sfn|Conti|2025}} He accepted the existence of [[purgatory]] but not the usefulness of intercession for the saved in purgatory.<ref name=writings>{{cite book |last1=Wycliffe |first1=John |title=Writings of the Reverend and learned John Wickliff, D.D. .. |date=1842 |publisher=Philadelphia : Presbyterian Board of Publication |url=https://archive.org/details/writingsofrevere1842wycl/page/n51/mode/2up?view=theater}}</ref>{{rp|40}} He also rejected the selling of [[indulgences]].

=== 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.

{{quote| But any one who looks even cursorily through these volumes will at once perceive that they exhibit everywhere a vehement and uncompromising spirit, — a spirit which menaced what it attacked, not with reform, but with destruction. The feeling of Wyclif towards the friars seems to have amounted to positive hatred ...: he calls upon lords and gentlemen to unite with the reforming clergy in suppressing the friars altogether. Not one redeeming feature is allowed them ; not a single ray of light relieves the awful shadows of the portrait which he draws of them. The superior clergy, — bishops, deans, and archdeacons, — the various orders of monks, and the canons secular and regular, of whom there were at that time numerous communities in England, are all denounced with nearly equal bitterness, and with as little allowance for any good qualities which they might possess. Now, that the portrait which Wyclif draws of his adversaries is an entirely fair and truthful one, cannot seem probable to any reasonable man.| Thomas Arnold (editor) ''Selected Works of John Wyclif'' (3 vols)<ref>{{cite book |last1=Wycliffe |first1=John |last2=Arnold |first2=Thomas |title=Select English works of John Wyclif; |url=https://archive.org/details/selectenglishwor03wycl/page/n9/mode/2up |publisher=Oxford, Clarendon Press |year=1871 |volume=3 |page=ix}}</ref>}}

=== 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.{{sfn|Lechler|1904|pp=340-347}}

=== Basic positions in philosophy ===
Wycliffe was a prominent English philosopher of the second half of the 14th century.{{sfn|Conti|2025}} 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|author-link=Margaret Deanesly |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, ''{{langx|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/>  He espoused ''propositional realism'': that a true proposition maps onto a truth about being (i.e., about something real.)<ref>{{cite web |last1=Lahey |first1=Stephen |title=Stanislav of Znojmo's Commentary on John Wyclif's Philosophy |url=https://globalcommentary.utoronto.ca/?p=722 |website=globalcommentary.utoronto.ca}}</ref>

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 ''{{langx|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''====
{{main|Dominion (political theory)}}
A second key point of Wycliffe's is his emphasis on the notion of divine Lordship (''{{langx|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>

''{{langx|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 ''{{langx|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. ''{{langx|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 believed that the communion bread was "very God in form of bread"<ref name=writings/>{{rp|46}} (i.e., not merely symbolic) but rejected the theological characterisation of this as [[transubstantiation]]. He also rejected 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> which were [[consubstantiation]]: 

<blockquote>The nature of the bread is not destroyed by what is done by the priest, it is only elevated so as to become a substance more honoured. The bread while becoming by virtue of Christ’s words the body of Christ does not cease to be bread. When it has become sacramentally the body of Christ, it remains bread substantially.”
:— 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 | date=July 1983 }}</ref></blockquote>

=== Soteriology ===
Wycliffe was influenced by the [[Augustinian soteriology]],{{sfn|Ellingsen|2012|p=241}} which centered on a divine [[monergism]],{{sfn|Barrett|2013|p=xxvii|loc={{zwnj}}|ps=. "[D]ivine monergism is the view of Augustine and the Augustinians."}} and implied a [[double predestination]].{{sfn|James|1998|p=103|ps=. "If one asks, whether double predestination is a logical implication or development of Augustine's doctrine, the answer must be in the affirmative."}} He argued that all events occur by absolute [[Necessity and sufficiency|necessity]], and that God is the author of even man's evil deeds.{{sfn|Sammons|2020|p=60}} This position led Wycliffe to become a strong proponent of double predestination.{{sfn|Stacey|2024}}{{sfn|Ellingsen|2012|loc={{zwnj}}|p=241|ps=. "[Wycliffe] affirmation of prevenient grace took an Augustinian character with Wycliffe's understanding of predestination as an election either to salvation or to reprobation, which is otherwise known as "double predestination".}} Wycliffe appears to have had similar ideas of [[Justification (theology)|justification]] as the later [[Protestant Reformers|reformers]] would. According to Wycliffe faith was sufficient for salvation:<ref name=":0"/>

<blockquote>That faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, is sufficient for salvation, and that without faith it is impossible to please God ; that the merit of Christ is able, by itself, to redeem all mankind from hell, and that this sufficiency is to be understood without any other cause concurring; (Wycliffe) persuaded men therefore to trust wholly to Christ, to rely altogether upon his sufferings, not to seek to be justified but by his righteousness; and that by participation in his righteousness, all men are righteous.
:— popularly attributed to John Wycliffe<ref name=":0"/> with revisions, but from ''précis''<ref name=writings/>{{rp|41}} by Protestant scholar Dr [[Thomas James]] ''An Apology for John Wycliffe'' (1608)<ref>{{cite book |last1=James |first1=Thomas |title=An apologie for Ion Wycliffe: shewing his conformitie with the now Church of England; with answere to such slaundrous objections, as have been lately urged against him by Father Parsons, the apologists, and others, etc. |date=1608 |location=Oxford}}</ref> </blockquote>

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

Wycliffe's dictum was “omnis veritas est ex scriptura, et ut necessarior est expressior” (all truth necessary to faith is
in the scripture, 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}} This proposition was later [[De libero arbitrio diatribe sive collatio#Background|taken up by Martin Luther]].

The whole of scripture is one word of God (''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}}

Wycliffe taught that the scriptures were literally true 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 book |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 ({{langx|la|sensum literalem scripture sensum, quem spiritus sanctus primo indidit, ut animus fidelis ascendat in deum.}})<ref name=ghosh />{{rp|36}} Wycliffe wrote of progressive stages of scriptural interpretation: the plain or literal reading of text and its interpretation being the most basic, leading to a mystical understanding of the sense of the author, leading finally to  seeing the Book of Life which contains every truth. However, historians have suggested that this mystical view allowed Wycliffe to work backwards, back-fitting his reading of scripture to suit his theological views. Indeed, Wycliffe maintains that the Christian faith would persist even if all biblical codices were “burnt up or otherwise destroyed”.<ref>{{cite book |last=Kraebel |first=Andrew |chapter=Eclectic Hermeneutics: Biblical Commentary in Wyclif's Oxford |title=Biblical Commentary and Translation in Later Medieval England: Experiments in Interpretation |date=2020 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |pages=54–90 |doi=10.1017/9781108761437.003|isbn=978-1-108-76143-7 }}</ref>

==== 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|url-access=subscription }}</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 |url-access=subscription }}</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:Leading Theologians of the Middle Ages.jpg|thumb|Image of Wycliffe among the leading [[Protestant Reformers]] such as [[Jan Hus]], [[Martin Luther]], and [[John Calvin]].]]

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.
[[File:Wycliffecollege toronto chapel1.jpg|thumb|left|A stained glass window in [[Wycliffe College]] Chapel, Toronto]]
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 ==
* [[John Bankin]]
* [[Ecclesiae Regimen]]
* [[Lollardy]]
* [[William Tyndale]]

==Notes and references==
=== Notes ===
{{notelist}}

=== Citations ===
{{Reflist}}

=== General and cited sources ===
* {{cite book |language=en |last=Barrett |first=Matthew |title=Salvation by Grace: The Case for Effectual Calling and Regeneration |location=Phillipsburg |publisher=P & R Publishing |date=2013}}
* {{cite book|title=The Eagle and the Hart: The Tragedy of Richard II and Henry IV|year=2024|author-link=Helen Castor|first=Helen |last=Castor}}
* {{ cite web |last=Conti |first=Alessandro |title=John Wyclif |url=https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/wyclif/ |access-date=25 October 2025|website=[[Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy]] |date=6 May 2025}}
* {{cite book |language=en |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 book |language=en |last=Ellingsen |first=Mark |title=Reclaiming Our Roots, Volume I: An Inclusive Introduction to Church History: The Late First Century to the Eve of the Reformation |location=Eugene, OR |publisher=Wipf and Stock Publishers |date=2012}}
* {{cite ODNB |language=en |last=Hudson |first=Anne |author1link=Anne Hudson (academic) |first2=Anthony |last2=Kenny |year=2004 |title=Wyclif, John (d. 1384) |id=30122}}
* {{cite book |language=en |last=James |first=Frank A. |title=Peter Martyr Vermigli and Predestination: The Augustinian Inheritance of an Italian Reformer |publisher=Clarendon |location=Oxford |year=1998}}
* {{ cite book |last=Lahey |first=Stephen Edmund |date= 2009 |title=John Wyclif (Great Medieval Thinkers)|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=B_jKb_rjQQIC&q=john+wycliffe |access-date=25 October 2025 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0199720286 |via=Google Books |language=en |location=New York }}
* {{ Cite book |last=Lechler |first=Gotthard Victor |author-link=Gotthard Victor Lechler|date=1904 |title=John Wycliffe and His English Precursors |url=https://archive.org/details/johnwycliffehise0000lech/page/n5/mode/2up|access-date=25 October 2025 |publisher=Religious Tract Society |isbn=9780404162351 }}
* {{cite book |language=en |last=Stacey |first=John |chapter=John Wycliffe |title=Encyclopædia Britannica |date=2024 |chapter-url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/John-Wycliffe}}
* {{cite book |language=en |last=Sammons |first=Peter |title=Reprobation: from Augustine to the Synod of Dort: The Historical Development of the Reformed Doctrine of Reprobation |location=Gottingen |publisher=Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht |date=2020}}

== 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." 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}}
{{Portal|Saints}}
* {{cite SEP |url-id=wyclif-political |title=Wyclif's Political Philosophy |last=Lahey |first=Stephen}}
* [https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b011vh4k 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}}
** {{cite DNB|wstitle=Wycliffe, John |short=x |noicon=x|author-link=Hastings Rashdall|first=Hastings |last=Rashdall|year=1900|volume=63}}
}}
* {{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}}
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