John Wycliffe (1330 – 1384) is best known for being the forerunner of the Protestant Reformation and the first man to help translate the Bible into English. What a noble desire and accomplishment to translate the Bible into English! Not so according to the Catholic Church, which was the church in power in England at the time. In fact, the Catholic Church was so upset with Wycliffe that in 1428, 44 years after Wycliffe’s death, church officials dug up his bones, burned them, and scattered the ashes on the River Swift.
Wycliffe, was a brilliant scholar, theologian, preacher, and reformer who lived in the Middle Ages in England. He spent his entire life promoting Scripture and opposing papal authority. Wycliffe believed that Scripture was the primary basis for Christianity and is seen as the precursor for the later Protestant Reformation of Martin Luther.
According to Jack Zavada: “Certainly, John Wycliffe was revolutionary in his time for the authority he placed in the Bible, elevating it higher than the edicts of the pope or the church. In his 1378 book, On the Truth of Holy Scripture, he asserted that the Bible contained everything necessary for salvation, without the church’s additions of prayers to saints, fasting, pilgrimages, indulgences, or the Mass.”1
Educated at the University of Oxford, Wycliffe soon became Oxford’s leading philosopher and theologian. What really riled up the Church of Rome was that Wycliffe believed that the Scriptures were the sole authority and standard on which all doctrines were to be measured against. That meant that the Bible, not the Pope and Catholic traditions, must be adhered to; and when they conflicted the latter must be rejected. To Wycliffe, the Catholic church and the papacy were a manmade religion and many of its doctrines needed to be rejected.
In addition to rejecting the Catholic Church as the final authority on matters of doctrine, in favor of the Bible, Wycliffe had a passion that every Englishman should be able to read the Bible on their own and in English. The situation in the church in England in the 1300’s made this impossible since the Latin Vulgate was the main Bible available and only scholars, not the common man, could read Latin. What this meant was that the common Englishman had no way to understand what the Bible said unless the Catholic priests interpreted the Scriptures. This was an outrage to Wycliffe who said: “Englishmen learn Christ’s law best in English. Moses heard God’s law in his own tongue; so, did Christ’s apostles.”2
It was Wycliffe who headed a group of likeminded believers that worked tirelessly to translate the Bible into English. And as a result, four years after Wycliffe died, the first handwritten English translation of the Bible was produced in 1388. This translation became extremely popular with the common man in England but anathema to the Church of Rome.
According to the website gotquestions.org: “The loss of a monopoly on Scripture was of serious concern to Rome. The Catholic Church condemned the Wycliffe Bible. Anyone caught reading it was subject to heavy fines. As the persecution increased, some of Wycliffe’s supporters were burned at the stake with the Wycliffe Bible hung around their necks.”3
As much as the church tried to extinguish the Bible the Lord as always preserved its circulation. As with all attempts to silence the Word of God, they are doomed to failure. Wycliffe was a man of impeccable character and I believe God used him in a very special way. Today he is remembered as not only a Bible translator but as a reformer against church abuses almost 200 years before Martin Luther. It is no wonder that he has been called the Morning Star of the Reformation. Thanks to his tireless efforts he trailblazed a path that countless Christians were able to follow.
1 John Wycliffe Was a Groundbreaking Bible Translator (learnreligions.com)